Sister
by No Guns Only Roses
Summary: In 1963, Sister Penelope meets a troubled, silent boy named Michael Myers while working at Smith's Grove Sanitarium and grows to love him like a son. But will her unconditional love be enough to free Michael from his demons? Or is Michael a demon, himself? Prequel to the 1978 film and sequel to the 2018 film.
1. Chapter 1

**Sister Penelope is an OC that I made up. I do not own the Halloween franchise.**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _"I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six year old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the Devil's eyes."_

 ** _Smith's Grove Sanitarium_**

 ** _1963_**

"He's only six? My God."

"God has long abandoned him, Sister."

Sister Penelope, who was twenty-seven years old at the time, followed Dr. Loomis down the halls of the asylum to the room of Michael Myers. When they told her how Michael brutally murdered his own sister Judith Myers with a kitchen knife, she couldn't believe that a child so young could do such a horrible thing. Based on what she read in his files, he came from a fairly decent family. His parents weren't neglectful or abusive toward him, and they went to church every Sunday. Those who knew Mr. and Mrs. Myers confirmed that they were good parents to both Michael and Judith. So what could've possibly driven this boy to do what he did on Halloween night?

They were now standing at Michael's door, and as Loomis reached for the handle, he gave Penelope a grim look. "He may be a boy, but if he's capable of taking someone else's life without remorse, then we must be extremely cautious."

She nodded and held her breath as the door slowly opened. The first thing she saw in that room was the small frame of a boy sitting in a chair and staring out the large window. Even as they both walked in and their footsteps echoed, Michael didn't turn around to look at them. He didn't even move a muscle. He just sat there in his chair, completely still like a doll.

"Michael, someone is here to see you," Loomis said, then nodded at Penelope, who slowly approached the boy with caution.

"Hello, Michael," she said softly. "I'm Sister Penelope. I'm a nun who works here." As she got closer, she could see blonde curly hair. "I'll be taking care of you until you are well again."

She stood at his left side and got a better look at him. He had a face that seemed angelic and innocent, and with his curly blonde hair, he looked like a cherub. A sweet, little cherub. She quickly forgot why he was sent here in the first place and reached to stroke his soft hair.

But before she could touch him, Michael slowly turned his head in a way that seemed mechanical and locked eyes with her. Her mouth opened in a silent gasp as she looked into the dark abyss that bore no soul. Just emptiness. And something else. Something that sent chills down her spine and into her heart.

For what seemed like an eternity, he stared at her without any emotion, and eventually, Penelope got a hold of herself and hurried over to the door, slamming it behind her.

Loomis was already waiting for her in the halls and gently touched the nun on the shoulder as she pressed her hand against her chest and breathed heavily. "Are you alright?"

She looked up at him with eyes full of fear. "His eyes," she gasped softly. "There was nothing in his eyes."

He slowly nodded. "I know. The nurses are too frightened to even go near him, and that's why we came to you for help. The Sisterhood claims that you are the best with children. But I understand if you feel that you can't do this-"

"No!" she snapped as she whirled around to face him. Then she said calmly, "No. No, Dr. Loomis. I have a duty to God and to this boy. It's obvious that he's a troubled soul and I won't turn away from this. I was just...caught off guard." She glanced over at the door and clasped the crucifix that hung from her necklace. "He's only a child. How are his parents taking this?"

"Well, they have disowned him," Loomis said with a bit of sadness. "They dropped him off here with no intention of letting him back into their house, or their lives, even after he is cured. They are afraid of their own child. Now how often do you hear that from parents?"

Penelope felt her break for Michael. "So he has no one. Poor thing."

"While I'm grateful to you for taking this job, Sister, I must also warn you to be careful around Michael. I will try to reach him, but I can't guarantee that I will succeed. Only time will tell."

The nun nodded and reached for the doorknob, slowly turning it. Michael was still sitting in his chair with his back to her, staring out the window. She quietly closed the door behind her and walked up to him. He completely ignored her even as she lovingly put her hand on his shoulder.

Through the door window, Loomis watched the two for a while before he headed down the halls, silently wishing Penelope luck.

...

"You have to eat, Michael."

Penelope pushed the plate of mashed potatoes, meatloaf, and green peas further toward Michael, who just sat at the other end of the table and stared at his dinner. He hadn't eaten since the night he murdered Judith and was committed, yet he refused to take a bite out of anything they offered him.

"Come on, Michael," Penelope tried again, picking up her own fork and digging it into her mashed potatoes. She kept her eyes on him as she took a bite and chewed slowly with a smile on her face. "Mmmmm...it's very good." She scooped up some more and pushed it to Michael's lips. "Try it."

But Michael kept his mouth shut, even as the warm mushy food touched his lips and the tempting aroma filled his nostrils.

Penelope sighed softly as she lowered the fork and put it down next to her plate. "Michael, please. If you don't eat something, you'll die. What good would that do?"

Suddenly, without saying a word, Michael picked up his fork and held it over his meatloaf. Penelope held her breath, hoping that he would finally eat his meal, but to her dismay, he just started to lightly stab at it.

"Michael, don't play with your food," she scolded, though she kept her tone soft.

Michael started to stab the meat a little harder, then to Penelope's horror, he became aggressive and the table began to shake as he attacked his food with no mercy and with so much rage.

"Michael!" Penelope ran to the other end of the table and grabbed a hold of his arms, but for a six year old, Michael was surprisingly strong and she struggled to keep him still. "Michael, stop! Michael! Mi-AAH!" She cried out in pain as Michael suddenly stabbed her in the arm with the fork and let go of him. He had stabbed hard enough to draw a bit of blood, but it wasn't life-threatening.

She quickly grabbed a napkin and pressed it over her wound, and when she looked back down at Michael, the boy was looking at her with the same emotionless expression, but he tilted his head a bit in a curious manner. She sucked in a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, Michael," she said through gritted teeth. "You hurt me."

Very slowly, Michael got up from his chair and pulled the napkin away, studying the wound he inflicted upon her. He seemed very intrigued with the blood that was seeping through her neckerchief and lifted his finger to touch it, but Penelope stepped back and continued to put pressure on it with napkin.

"No, no, no, don't touch it, Michael," she said softly. "Just...eat your supper." She hurried to the door and shut it behind her. She stood in the hall and closed her eyes as she let out a heavy, frustrated sigh. "God, give me strength," she mumbled. "Or else _I'll_ stab him with a fork."

About thirty minutes later, afte she cleaned the wound and changed her neckerchief, she returned to Michael's room and he was still in his seat. But to her surprise and delight, his plate had been licked clean. "Oh, you've finished. Good." She smiled warmly at him and patted him on the back before picking up his plate and hers. "That makes me happy, Michael. Very happy."

...

"Has your sister ever done anything to make you angry, Michael? Enough to make you want to hurt her?"

Dr. Loomis and Michael sat at the table the very next morning, and the psychiatrist asked his young patient several questions with a tape recorder. But Michael remained silent and merely stared at him with cold eyes. Penelope stood at the other side of the room and watched the entire session, and in her hands was a plain paper bag.

"Michael, please," Loomis implored. "I can't help you unless you let me in." When he got no response, he looked over at Penelope and shook his head with a soft sigh. "I suppose we'll try again tomorrow," he said to Michael as he stood up and headed to the door with his recorder and notepad.

Once he was gone, Penelope walked over to the table and placed the bag in front of Michael. "I have a surprise for you, Michael." She reached into the bag and pulled out a light brown teddy bear with blue button eyes. She held it out to him to take, but he didn't move a muscle so she placed it in his lap. "His name is Thomas, and he needs a friend, too."

Michael looked down at the bear and picked it up, studying its features and running his fingers through its fluffy fur.

"He's soft, isn't he?" Penelope asked. "Do you like him, Michael?"

But then the boy grabbed a hold of the bear's head and with one tug, he completely ripped it off. He then pulled out all the stuffing and dropped it onto the floor, leaving nothing but a rag that hung limp in his hands.

Penelope rubbed her temples and shook her head. In all her years, she had never met a child so destructive and stubborn. "Alright, I'll go get the broom."

 **So what do you think so far...? :/**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all for your reviews! I'll try to have this story done before Thanksgiving!**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 **Also, strong language will be censored. Sorry, that's how I roll.**

Although the hospital paid Sister Peneolpe to take care of Michael Myers, all of her earnings went to the church, which in turn provided her a stripend to cover minimum living expenses. As a nun, she took a vow of poverty, which served as a reminder that spiritual riches are much more important than material wealth. It wasn't an easy life, but it was the life she chose, and she never regretted it.

The apartment she lived in was only a few miles away from Smith's Grove, which was convenient. However, the living conditions there were terrible. All of the tenants had to share one bathroom on the third floor, which was rarely cleaned, and the ceiling in her room would leak during rainy days and nights. Sometimes she'd find rat droppings on her pillow and she had to check for bed bugs every night. And the rent was unreasonably high, though she suspected that the landlord was purposely making her pay a higher amount than the other tenants for whatever reason.

She walked up the stairs to the second floor where her room was, carrying the rag that used to be Thomas the bear until Michael ripped all the stuffing out of him. As she reached for the handle to her door, a familiar voice spoke from behind her.

"Hi, Sister."

Penelope smiled and turned around. "Hello, Carter."

Carter Levingston was an attractive young name with short, curly brown hair and blue eyes who lived across the hall from her. He was a good friend of Penelope, one of the very few that she had, and would occasionally have lunch or dinner with her. And like her, he lived in poverty and worked long hours as a janitor at a community college. He'd often joke that listening to the professors' lectures in the halls made him a little smarter every day.

"What's that in your hand?" Carter asked, pointing to the rag.

"It's a teddy bear," she said as she held up Thomas' head.

He raised an eyebrow and gave her a lopsided grin. "A teddy bear? It looks like a dog mauled it."

"A child did this, actually, at Smith's Grove."

"A _kid_ did that? Jesus Chri-"

" _What_ did I tell you about using the Lord's name in vain?" she scolded but had a smirk on her face.

"Oh, right," he smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Sister. So...Smith's Grove, huh? How old is this kid, anyway?"

Penelope frowned and looked down at the rag with sad eyes. "Michael is only six years old, and he's there because he murdered his older sister on Halloween night."

Carter's eyes went big. "I...I'm sorry, he...he _murdered_ his own sister? And he's only six? Damn. Lemme guess...abusive parents, right?"

"No. His parents are good people, actually. They go to church every Sunday and contribute to their community. His psychiatrist is trying to find out why he did it, but Michael is...a very quiet boy. He hasn't spoken a word since that night."

"And he's obviously very dangerous," Carter said as he gestured at the head of Thomas. "Has he ever attacked you?"

Penelope nodded with a grim expression. "Yes. Last night, he stabbed me in the shoulder with a fork. But...I don't think that he understands that it's wrong to hurt people, like he doesn't understand that it's wrong to destroy this bear. Someone has to help him understand."

"And that certain someone is you."

"I'll try, but I can't until he opens up to me and Dr. Loomis. If he doesn't, he'll be locked away from the world forever."

"But is that really a bad thing?" Carter asked, earning a shocked and disgusted look from Penelope. "I-I mean, considering what he did to his sister-"

Penelope wouldn't hear any more of it and turned back to her door. She didn't expect him to understand, but it was still a very insensitive thing to say, especially since he knew how much she loved children.

"W-Wait!" He rushed to her side and grabbed her hand before she reach the doorknob. "I'm sorry, Sister. Please don't be mad. I think what you're doing is a good thing. Really."

She pulled her hand out of his grasp and opened the door. "I know," she said simply before walking into the room and shutting the door behind her. Releasing a shaky breath, she ran straight to her small altar which composed of a miniature statue of the Holy Virgin Mary, a crucifix on the wall with a marble Christ hanging from it, several candles, and a painting of Saint Scholastica in a small picture frame. She quickly let the candles and knelt down in front of the alar with her hands folded in prayer.

"Mary, Mother most pure, and Joseph, caste guardian of the Virgin, to you I entrust the purity of my soul and my body. I beg you to plead with God for me that I may never for the remainder of my life soil my soul by any sin of impurity. I earnestly wish to be pure in thought..."

Ever since she became a Sister seven years ago, Penelope had remained celibate and fought the temptation to engage in sex in order to dedicate her life to serving God. But being around Carter made her feel certain...urges. And just now, the desire to be with the opposite sex became stronger after he touched her hand. Just one touch was all it took to make her feel weak and vulnerable to the sin of lust.

After praying fervently for half an hour, she took a needle and threat and proceeded to stuff Thomas again and sew him back together.

...

"Alright, Michael, let's try this again," Penelope placed Thomas in Michael's hands and stoked the boy's blonde hair. He looked down at the bear indifferently and didn't move a muscle. "You shouldn't hurt him. Thomas just wants to be your friend. Try being nice to him, okay?"

She knelt down next to him and looked up at him with soft eyes. The bright light from the window made his hair appear golden, and from her angle, he looked like an angel. Yet his eyes were dark and cold and emotionless.

"Do you like to draw, Michael?" Penelope asked. When Michael looked at her in response, she smiled warmly at him and stood back up. "Let's go draw some pictures." She took his hand and gently lifted him off the chair, and then she walked him to the table. There was a box of crayons and a small stack of papers waiting for them and Penelope sat across from Michael and took out a Bible to read as he worked. "You draw whatever you want, Michael. And take your time."

Michael immediately began to draw on a piece of paper, moving his arm slowly and intensely focused on his work. Penelope pretended to read her Bible the entire time, but she secretly watched him in amusement. She was thrilled to see Michael doing something other than look out the window all day, even when there was nothing to look at outside.

Finally, after twenty minutes of scribbling and coloring, Michael got up from his chair and walked over to her. He handed her the picture without saying a word, then went back to his seat. Penelope was completely taken back and a little horrified by what he had drawn. A little boy in a clown costume stood next to a woman who had nothing on, and her breasts were very...detailed. She was also covered with blood, as was the knife that the boy was holding.

She glanced up from the drawing to see Michael trying to stab Thomas with a crayon. With a frustrated sigh, she quickly took the bear from him. " _Why_ , Michael?" she demanded. "Why do you keep trying to hurt everyone else? Are you wanting to see what would happen? Well, I'll tell you what happens. It makes everyone sad. It made your parents very sad after you stabbed your sister. And you know what's even worse? You _killed_ her, Michael. You stabbed her too many times. And now she's _dead_. Do you understand? Dead!"

Realizing that losing her patience with him wasn't going to help things, she took a deep breath to recompose herself and held Thomas close to her chest. "It's all right if you hurt Thomas, because he's not real, and I can fix him every time you break him. But people are different. I can't fix every person you hurt. People are not toys for you to break. Do you understand?" She gently touched his cheek with motherly affection. "Please try to understand, Michael. Please?"

For a moment, Michael stared at the stuffed bear in Penelope's arms and appeared to be in deep thought, and then he took Thomas from her and slowly walked back to the chair in front of the window. Penelope released a shaky sigh of relief and her eyes began to water as he sat back down and held the bear in his arms like how a normal child would.

Perhaps there was still hope for Michael.

...

 _ **One week later...**_

"So Michael is getting better?" Edith Myers asked Penelope, who sat in a chair across from her. Her husband Donald sat next to her on the couch, although he didn't ask the nun a single question about the welfare of their only son. He remained stone-faced and silent with his arms crossed, while Edith was doing her best not to break down and clutched a used, crumbled tissue in her shaky hands.

Penelope nodded with a warm smile. "Yes, slowly but surely, he's starting to understand that it's wrong to use such violence and be so destructive. I've got a good a feeling about all this."

"So...you think he'll be allowed to come home one day?" Edith asked with hopeful eyes.

Donald finally broke his silence and glared at his wife. "Be quiet, Edith," he said sternly.

Edith looked at her husband pleadingly. "Donald..."

"He's never coming back here. We agreed to that."

She slowly shook her head with tears spilling down her cheeks and placed her hand over his. "He's our son, Donald. We need to at least visit him every once in a while."

Donald angrily jerked his hand away. "That... _monster_...is _not_ our son," he says with rage in his voice. "He stabbed our daughter over and over and over and left her to bleed to death on the floor. Our son would never have done such a thing to his own sister. You know that, Edith."

His wife squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her hands as she began to weep.

Penelope's heart broke for both parents and swallowed away her own tears before she cleared her throat. "With all due respect, Mr. Myers, your wife is right. He's still your son, and you need to go see him. It will help the healing process for everyone, including Michael."

Donald looked at Penelope with blazing eyes. "You're asking me to go visit my daughter's murderer? And then what? I'm supposed to pretend that none of that matters and everything is just...f*cking peachy?"

"I understand your pain, Mr. Myers," Penelope said calmly.

"No, you don't," Donald hissed. "Everywhere we go now, people are starting at us. They think we're sh*tty parents. Hell, they all think we're just sh*tty people in general. Even in church, we're greeted with accusing eyes. We're branded for life because of Michael. If you want him, you can keep him, because we sure as hell don't want him anymore."

Edith continued to sob next to him, but she didn't argue any further with her husband.

Penelope looked at him with absolute shock, but she didn't blame him for acting this way, and instead of being disgusted with him, she felt pity for him. Losing a loved one is a pain that will never go away and can change a person forever.

"I understand," she said softly as she got up from her chair. "Well, I assure you, Michael will be in good hands. If you change your mind, though, you're always welcome to visit him. And if you have any questions, give us a call." She walked to the door and opened it, and before she stepped outside, she looked back at the broken parents with a sad smile.

"God bless you both."


	3. Chapter 3

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _ **Haddonfield** , **Illinois**_

 ** _2018_**

"Trick-or-Treat!"

A five-year-old girl in a nun costume beamed as an elderly couple poured some candies and treats into her pumpkin bucket. "What a cute little nun!" the old lady cooed.

"What do you say, Amy?" her mother reminded her with a smile and pat on the back.

"Thank you!" Amy squeaked as she raced down the steps of the porch and onto the sidewalk.

"Sweetie, hold on!" the mother yelled after her. "Wait for Mommy!"

But Amy kept on running to the next house, eager to get more candy. Just then a large figure stepped out from behind a tree and blocked her path. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at the stranger curiously.

He wore a simple blue jumpsuit similar to that of a mechanic's and a creepy, wrinkled white mask with eerie large eyeholes and dark hair. He said nothing as he stared down at her, his heavy breathing muffled by the mask.

Although she was nervous, Amy smiled politely at him. "Hi," she said softly. Then she asked him, "Are you the Boogeyman?" He tilted his head in response, which made her giggle as it reminded her of a confused puppy. She then reached into her bucket and pulled out a Tootsie Roll. "Want one?" she asked as she offered it to him.

Just then the mother grabbed her daughter by the arm and pulled her away from him. "AMY! Don't run off like that!" she scolded. "And don't talk to strangers!" She glanced up at the masked man and smiled apologetically. "I'm so sorry. Let's go, Amy."

As she was being dragged away by her mother, Amy looked back at the stranger and waved at him. "Happy Halloween!"

He watched them walked away for a while before heading into the other direction and disappearing into the night.

...

 _ **Smith's Grove Sanitarium**_

 _ **1964**_

"Happy Halloween, Michael," Penelope said cheerfully as she set a pumpkin down on the table in front of Michael. The pumpkin had a happy face carved into it, with a toothy smile, triangle nose and round eyes.

"I know it's not perfect," she said as she ran her finger down the line that connected the nose to the mouth. "I had a little accident with the knife." Michael spotted the white bandage around her thumb and tilted his head. She noticed him staring at it and held it up with an embarrassed grin. "I cut my thumb. Like I said, I had an accident."

She then struck a match and carefully lowered the flame into the jack-o-latern. Once the candle inside was lit, she turned the pumpkin around so that it would face Michael. "Do you know the story behind the jack-o-lantern, Michael?" The boy didn't seem to pay her any mind and continued to stare at the pumpkin, its warm, orange glow shining in his face.

But she began to tell the story anyway. "Well, it's a tradition that started in Ireland centuries ago. There is a legend about a wicked man named Stingy Jack who tricked the Devil into allowing him to keep his soul after he died. But God wouldn't accept him, either, so he is forced to walk the Earth forever, holding a turnip with a burning coal inside as his latern. On every Hallow's Eve, the Irish carved faces into turnips since they didn't have pumpkins and put candles in them to keep Stingy Jack and evil spirits out of their houses. You could say that Stingy Jack is the Boogeyman."

At the mention of that name, Michael briefly lifted his gaze from the pumpkin and up at Penelope, who smiled at him.

"Of course, that's just a story made up by grown-ups to scare naughty children. There's no such thing as the Boogeyman, so you don't need to worry about him coming to get you. But it's still fun to make jack-o-lanterns and put them on your porch. Don't you think so, Michael?"

Michael suddenly got up and walked back to his chair in front of the window, but instead of sitting down, he picked up something from underneath it. He then walked back to Penelope and handed her a piece of paper, which had a drawing done by crayons.

"Oh, you drew more pictures?" she took the drawing from him and looked it over. This time a smiling boy with blonde hair stood next to a nun, who was holding his hand and had a smile on her face as well. Penelope's heart melted as she immediately figured out who the two were. "Oh, Michael, this is wonderful. But I wish you would smile like the boy in this drawing. I haven't seen you smile once since you arrived here." She playfully tapped him on the nose with a grin. "Come on. Just one smile?"

But Michael just walked back to his seat at the table and stared blankly at the jack-o-lantern with his chin resting on his arms.

She let out a soft sigh, but she understood. _He'll smile when he's ready._

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and before Penelope could get up to answer it, the knob turned and Dr. Wynn walked in with a nurse. "Sorry to interrupt, Sister, but..." He nodded to Michael, and she instantly knew the indication with a heavy heart.

It was time for Michael's monthly shock therapy.

"I understand," she said in a soft, sad voice as she got up and walked over to Michael. "Come on, Michael," she whispered as she touched his shoulder. "You need to go with Dr. Wynn now."

Without showing any resistance or emotion, Michael stood up and slowly walked toward the doctor. The nurse took his hand and led him down the hall, but before Dr. Wynn could follow them, he was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Dr. Wynn," Penelope's voice trembled with anger, "why continue with these shock therapies if they're not helping him?"

Dr. Wynn sighed and gently brushed her hand off. "Sister, I keep telling you, the treatment does not hurt Michael at all. His silence and emotional detachment is an indication that he is suffering from depression. And electroconvulsive therapy is a safe and humane way to treat it."

Penelope scoffed and shook her head. "'Humane'. And how many shocks before he starts to lose his memories?"

"Look, Sister, we both have the same goal here," Dr. Wynn said, a bit irritated. "To help Michael get better. Now you do your job, and I'll do mine. Why don't you go home and get some rest? Spend the rest of Halloween with your family."

He then turned and continued down the hall, and behind his back, Penelope shook her head in disgust.

...

 _Spend the rest of Halloween with your family._

Those words kept being replayed in her mind the entire bus ride back to her apartment. She kept looking down at Michael's drawing, listening to the raindrops tapping her window.

No one at Smith's Grove understood that Penelope saw Michael as her family. In fact, as far as she was concerned, he was the _only_ family that she had. Sure, she had living relatives, but they never contacted her or even sent her postcards. Her father left before she was even born, and her mother was a prostitute and an alcoholic who abused her throughout her entire childhood.

When she turned fifteen, she ran away from home and moved in with her Aunt Delia. Then she found God at nineteen and decided to become a nun. Delia, however, was an atheist and didn't take the news very well, kicking Penelope out of her house and forbidding her from ever coming back even during the holidays.

As she walked through the front entrance of her apartment, she could hear her landlord laughing with some other people in his room on the first floor. He was probably having a late Halloween party with friends. She rolled her eyes as she walked past his room and up the stairs. Of course he would spend all of her rent on booze and party supplies.

When she got to the second floor, she was surprised to see Carter at her door, knocking and holding a pumpkin under his arm. He had his back to her and didn't hear her walk up to him, so when she lightly tapped on his shoulder, it startled him and he dropped the pumpkin, which broke into pieces on the floor.

"Oh, shoot!" Carter whipped around and placed a hand on his chest as he tried to still his racing heart and catch his breath. "Sister, you scared the snot outta me!"

Although she felt bad about making him drop the pumpkin, she couldn't stop herself from giggling. "Well, it _is_ Halloween, the time for scaring, right?"

He chuckled and bent down to pick up the pieces. "Yeah, you're right about that."

"I'm really sorry," she said as she joined him in cleaning up the mess, but he stopped her.

"No, no, it's alright," he said. "Lemme do it. It's my fault, anyway. I was just gonna surprise you with a jack-o-latern, you know, to put on your window sill."

She smiled at him, touched by his generosity. "Oh, that's so sweet of you, Carter. Thank you."

He smiled shyly at her and gathered up as many pieces as he could in his arms. "So, uh, how's Michael?"

"He's doing fine," she said a bit somberly. "He still hasn't spoken a word, though. And they keep giving him shock treatments but they're not helping."

Carter nodded, seeing how disturbed and hurt she was. "You love him, don't you? It's pretty obvious that you do."

She smiled and chuckled, holding Michael's drawing up for Carter to see. "I guess there's no use denying it, huh?"

"Well, one thing's for sure, his drawings have gotten less...creepy over the last few months," Carter chuckled as he looked at the picture. "They're now more cheerful and happy-like. And it seems he's become attached to you, too."

"I suppose so," Penelope said as she folded the paper.

"Anyway, I'll come back to pick up the rest," he nodded to the remaining pieces and mush on the floor. "You have yourself a good night, Sister. And Happy Halloween."

She nodded and opened her door. "Happy Halloween, Carter."

...

 _ **St. Sebastian's Retirement Center**_

 _ **2017**_

As she slept soundly in her bed, the smell of dead leaves suddenly filled her nostrils and her nose wrinkled as her eyes fluttered open. A tall figure stood next to her bed and it was too dark for her to see his face.

"Mmm, nurse?" she mumbled tiredly. When the stranger didn't respond, she reached for the lamp on the nightstand.

Once the light turned on, her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a silent scream when she saw a pair of black eyes looking down at her. The man's face was as white as a ghost's and his expression seemed blank and emotionless.

He swiftly reached down and grabbed her by the throat, and she let out a strangled scream as she clawed at his calloused hands. He slowly squeezed the life out of her and she started to see spots. Then she saw something shiny in his other hand as he slowly lifted it...

"...nny! Miss Penny! Miss Penny!"

The ceiling lights suddenly turned on and a nurse came running into her room, holding her down as she continued to toss and turn. "Miss Penny! Calm down! It's just a bad dream!"

She continued to sob and hyperventilate as the younger woman held her in her arms and rock her back and forth. A couple of elderly people who were standing in the hall peeked in to see what the commotion was all about.

"Shhhh," the nurse gently shushed her. "Please calm down, Miss Penny."

The now eighty-one-year-old Penelope finally started to calm down after a few minutes of being rocked and soothed by the kind nurse, but as she opened her eyes and looked straight head, she saw another horrifying image.

Her old crucifix with the marble Christ hung on the wall above her dresser, but something began to leak from its eyes and slide down its cheeks. She let out a choked gasp as she began to realize that the statue was shedding tears of blood.

The nurse noticed her looking at something in horror and followed her gaze. But all she saw was the jack-o-latern on Penelope's dresser, which had a flickering candle inside. There was no bleeding crucifix on the wall. "Miss Penny, it's just the jack-o-lantern," she told her soothingly. "Is that what scared you?"

But Penelope couldn't speak and continued to breathe in short gasps as she stared at the terrifying vision before her, the Christ's blood now dripping onto the jack-o-latern's face.

 **The opening scene takes place before Michael's final fight with Laurie in the 2018 movie. Just to let you know.**


	4. Chapter 4

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _ **St. Sebastian's Retirement Center**_

 _ **October 30, 2018**_

"Miss Penny, your family is here to see you."

Penelope turned away from the TV on the wall and looked behind her chair. A middle-aged man with his wife and nine-year-old son all smiled warmly at her. She smiled back and motioned for them to come. "Oh, I know those faces. Come here." They all walked over to her and covered her face with kisses while wrapping her in warm hugs.

"How ya been, Mom?" the man asked as he gave her another peck on the cheek.

"Oh, fine," she said. "I'm so happy to see you all. Have you sold your house yet, Gabe?"

Gabe nodded with a grin. "As a matter of fact, we have. It's actually thanks to Sally and her famous pecan pie. One bite of that delicious pastry and the McCallesters agree to buy the house for the price we asked for."

Sally rolled her eyes and smirked. "They didn't buy the house because of my pie."

"You sure about that?" Gabe joked.

Penelope chuckled. "Well, you do make the best pecan pies." She then gestured for her grandson to come forward. "Come here, Nathan. You're getting bigger every time I see you. How's school?"

"Good. I made something for you in class today." Nathan handed her a small pumpkin, which had the image of a Minion carved into it.

"Oh, my! This is amazing!" Penelope exclaimed in astonishment as she studied the unique jack-o-latern. "And just in time for Halloween, too. What is that, a cyclops?"

Nathan laughed and shook his head. "No, Grandma, it's a Minion, from the movie _Despicabe Me_."

"Ohhh. I never saw that one, but it sounds familiar. Isn't it a musical?" This made Nathan laugh even harder. "No? Well, I love this, anyway. Thank you, sweetheart."

"Hey, Nate, why don't you and your Mom go to the cafeteria to get a snack or something? I need to talk to your Grandma for a minute." Gabe turned to his wife and gave her a nod. She nodded back and walked with her son to the cafeteria. Gabe sat down on the chair next to Penelope's and reached over to take her hand. "Mom, Sal and I have been talking, and uh...we want you to spend Halloween night at our house."

"Oh, no," Penelope shook her head. "No, honey, I don't want to be a burden."

"Mom, it's no big deal," he insisted. "We would all feel better if you did."

She sighed softly and looked down at her jack-o-lantern. "Is this because of what happened last year?"

"It happens _every_ year, Mom. You have a nervous breakdown every Halloween night because of...you know, _him_."

She tensed up and gripped the pumpkin tighter to the point that her fingernails dug into it. After a moment of silence, she swallowed and set the pumpkin down on the table next to her. "I'll be fine, baby."

"I don't believe you. Look, Mom, he'll never get out again. I just heard that they're transferring him to a new facility tonight."

Penelope's eyes widened at the news and looked at her son. "Tonight?"

He nodded. "And once he gets there, they're throwing away the key. Then...that's it. He'll be out of our lives forever, and you can finally move on."

She suddenly grabbed his arm, which surprised him. "Honey, you have to take me to Smith's Grove before they take him away. I have to see him one last time"

Gabe blinked a couple of times, not sure if he heard his mother right. "I...I'm sorry. You _want_ to go see him?" When she nodded, he chuckled in disbelief. "No. No way, Mom. I'm not driving you to that crazy house."

She tightened her grip on his arm. "Gabe, you have to."

"No, I don't. Mom, you've got to let him go, okay?"

"I can't, Gabe. Not yet."

"Why not? You don't need him in your life anymore. You've got me and Sally and Nathan. We're your family. We take care of you. And what has Michael ever done for you, except ruin your life?"

"You wouldn't understand." Penelope's eyes brimmed with tears and she looked away from her son, her lower lip trembling. "Michael is a part of me. I tried to forget about him, Gabe. For forty years I tried...so hard. But he's still with me..." Tears spilled down her wrinkled cheeks as she pointed to her chest. "...every day. And I can't help but feel responsible for what happened on that Halloween night."

Gabe looked at his mother with sympathy and placed his hand over hers. "Mom, what happened in 1978 wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was," Penelope started to sob and covered her face with her other hand.

"Oh, no, Mom, please don't," he tried to soothe her by rubbing his thumb over shriveled hand.

"I left him. He needed me, but I abandoned just like everyone else in his life. If I hadn't been so-"

"Mom, stop." Gabe let out a defeated sigh and gently patted her hand. "If it's really that important to you, we'll go see him right now."

She looked at him surprised and wiped a tear away. "You...you will?"

He gave her a small smile and nodded. "Sure, Mom. Anything for you."

...

 ** _Smith's Grove Sanitarium_**

For what felt like hours, Penelope and Gabe sat in the waiting room of the asylum. They could distant incoherent shouting every now and then and the place reeked of urine. While Gabe was tense and uneasy during the entire wait, Penelope was used to the atmosphere and remained calm. The only thing that made her anxious was her reunion with Michael.

A banging sound caused them to both jump and they turned to see a patient with long messy hair pounding on the hospital doors from the other side. His eyes were bloodshot and wild and he screamed at them through the windows, "Don't let the Sandman get me! He's coming to get me! Don't let him get me!" Two attendants ran up to him from behind and grabbed him, and he let out an inhuman scream as he was dragged away.

"Cripes, I can't believe you worked here for fifteen years," Gabe whispered in her mother's ear.

"You get used to it after a few months," she whispered back.

They jumped again as the doors buzzed and automatically opened. A short, elderly man in a lab coat walked in and greeted the two with a friendly smile. "Afternoon. I'm Dr. Ranbir Sartain."

Gabe stood up and shook the psychiatrist's hand. "Gabe Wilson." He then gestured to Penelope. "This is my mother, Penelope Wilson."

At the mention of that name, Sartain's eyes widened in shock and he slowly walked over to her. "Penelope Wilson? You're...Sister Penelope? The nun who nurtured and cared for Michael for the first fifteen years?"

Penelope nodded with a tensed smile. "Yes."

Sartain laughed in amazement and eagerly shook her hand. "Oh, madam, it is an honor to meet you at last. Dr. Loomis told me great things about you."

She found that hard to believe. "Oh, really? Because the last time we spoke, we weren't exactly on the best of terms. In the last few years of my employment here, he thought I was...unfit to take care of Michael. He said I was becoming too attached to him and that he was manipulating me."

Sartain nodded. "Yes, he...told me about that, too. But I know that he felt nothing but respect toward you and thought of you as a dear friend. So, I understand that you wish to see Michael before he is transferred?"

Penelope got up from her seat with Gabe's help. "Yes, please. Let me see him."

"Of course. Right this way." Sartain motioned for them to follow as he walked back to the doors. "Michael will be thrilled to see you, Sister."

"You don't need to call me 'Sister'," she informed him. "I'm not a nun anymore."

...

She could feel his presence the moment she walked onto the courtyard and held her breath as she and Gabe followed Sartain. Several patients stood in yellow painted boxes and were chained to the ground by their wrists for the safety of the staff members and any visitors.

One patient, a man who appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, sat hunched over in his box and happened to glance up at Penelope as she passed. He growled at her like an angry animal, baring his yellow, rotten teeth. Gabe immediately wrapped a protective arm around his mother and gave the man a warning glare.

"Mommy?" Another patient, who was fatter and had a bald spot, reached for Penelope but couldn't go any further due to the chain. "Mommy, take me away from this place. I'll be a good boy from now on. Please, Mommy?"

"One-two-buckle-my-shoe-one-two-buckle-my-shoe-one-two-buckle-my-shoe..." a small, skinny man repeated over and over as he stared up blankly at the sky.

"These poor souls," Penelope whispered, looking at all the patients with pity. "God help them."

Sartain stopped to point at a patient who had his back to them and stood perfectly still like a statue. "There he is."

Penelope softly gasped when she saw him and placed a hand on her chest. It was him. It was really him, after forty years.

Gabe held her close and soothingly rubbed her back. "Mom, you don't have to do this. We can go-"

"No!" she snapped as she pulled away from his hug. "No, Gabe."

"Okay, okay," he said in a calmer voice. "Go on, then. I'll be right behind you."

"Remember, stay outside the line," Sartain instructed her, then nodded to Michael. "Go to him, Penelope."

Taking a deep breath, Penelope slowly approached the ever-still Michael with Sartain and Gabe following close behind her. Her steps became heavier as she got closer to him, and her heart pounded so hard that it drowned out the sounds that the other patients were making around her.

She stopped a couple of feet away from the box and stared at his back for a while. When she finally found the courage to speak to him, it came out in a choked up, small voice.

"Michael?"

He didn't even flinch at the sound of her voice and continued to stand still, so she tried again.

"Michael, it's me."

Again, no movement.

"Michael, won't you turn around to see who it is?" Sartain suggested. "It's someone who loves you very much."

Nothing.

Penelope then turned to Sartain. "Doctor, would it be alright if...?" she motioned with her finger to go around the box.

The psychiatrist quickly nodded, eager to see what would happen. "Yes. Go on."

She slowly walked around the yellow box but remained at a safe distance, and when she was finally face-to-face with him, she clasped a shaky hand over mouth to suppress a sob.

Michael had aged so much since she last saw him. He now had grey hair and even grew a beard, and his once beautiful, angelic face was now wrinkled and broken. His left eye was scarred and blind, which came as no surprise to her. She read in the papers on how Laurie Strode poked Michael in the eye with a coat hanger when he cornered her in a closet. He didn't look at her even as she stood directly in front of her and stared into the distance behind her.

"Michael," she spoke softly to him, unshed tears burning her eyes. "It's Sister Penelope."

Finally, at the mention of her name, Michael's dark eyes locked with hers and he slowly scrunched his eyebrows together. He tilted his head a bit as he studied her face, then he took slow, heavy steps toward her, the chains rattling as he moved.

Sartain chuckled and grinned from ear to ear, unable to contain his excitement. His mentor was right: Penelope and Michael shared a special bond and only her presence could stimulate a reaction out of him. Perhaps she could finally get him to speak after fifty years of silence.

Michael stopped right at the yellow line and continued to stare at her. A single tear rolled down Penelope's cheek as she took a daring step forward. One of the guard dogs began to whimper.

"My sweet Michael," she cooed, seeing the little blonde boy instead of the grey-haired old man before her. "I've missed you so much. Did you miss me?"

She took another step forward. The feral patient who growled at Penelope earlier began to claw at his own face.

"I haven't stopped thinking about you since I left. You're in my thoughts every day, and in my heart."

Another step forward. Two or three patients began giggling like crazy. Gabe noticed their strange behavior and looked at his mother nervously.

"Michael, I'm so sorry. I never should've left. You were my baby, too. I understand if you still hate me."

She now stood right at the yellow line and was inches away from Michael. The dog was now barking like crazy and several patients began to tug at their chains as they screamed and made weird sounds.

"Mommy, make the monster go away!" the fat bald patient screamed as he covered his ears.

Gabe's blood began to chill and he felt something dark and ominous hover above their heads, like a coming storm. "Mom?"

Incredibly, Penelope didn't even seem to notice all the commotion going on around her and continued to talk to Michael. "I came to say goodbye before they take you away. I owe you that much. Oh, Michael..." She then lifted her hand and, despite the warning that Sartain gave her a moment ago, reached over the line to touch his face.

This sent the whole courtyard into a frenzy.

An alarmed Gabe was about to run to her, but Sartain quickly stopped him by grabbing his arm. "Wait," the psychiatrist told him. "Let's see what happens."

Gabe just looked at him like he was insane and jerked his arm away. "You're nuts," he growled. He then sprinted around the box to get to his mother, ignoring the protests from Sartain.

Just as her fingertips were about to touch Michael's cheek, Penelope was abruptly pulled away. "Oh! Gabe! What are you doing?!"

"We're leaving," he sternly told her as he dragged her away from Michael. "Now."

Penelope weakly struggled against her son. "Gabe, no! Please! Please!"

Sartain desperately tried to stop them from leaving. "Wait. Wait, please, don't go. If you would reconsider-"

"You stay the hell away from us," Gabe spat, causing Sartain to flinch away. "You're as crazy as these freaks. Just stay away or I'll kick your ass."

"Gabe, please!" Penelope was now sobbing, but her son ignored her pleas and they went back inside.

Michael watched them leave the courtyard, his normally calm, steady breathing becoming heavier and angrier and his hands clenching into fists.

 **Please leave a review! I'd appreciate it!**


	5. Chapter 5

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 **Warning: Adult themes included in this chapter**

 _ **Craighead, Illinois**_

 _ **October 30, 2018**_

"She probably hates me now," Gabe sighed heavily as he collapsed onto the couch. He had just returned home after the dramatic, horrifying visit to Smith's Grove. Penelope never spoke to him the entire drive back to the retirement center nor did she tell him goodbye or goodnight, and the guilt weighed heavily on his heart.

His wife Sally sat down next to him and soothingly rubbed his knee. "She doesn't hate you. She'll get over it, eventually."

"I dunno. She's been obsessed with Michael since they met in 1963. He's her whole world," he added a bit somberly. "Always has been."

Sally looked at her husband sympathetically and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Honey, _you're_ her whole world. You're her baby."

"Yeah, well, apparently, so is he," he scoffed bitterly. "Sometimes I wonder if she loves him more than me. And I can't understand as to why."

"You know, we've been married for over ten years, but you never once talked to me about Michael Myers. Your mother told me the story, but I never heard your version of it. Maybe it will do you good to talk about your feelings." She kissed him on the cheek and wrapped an arm around his waist. "Come on, baby. Talk to me."

Gabe took a deep breath and released a long, heavy sigh, then rested his cheek on the top of her brunette hair. "A therapist told me that I was really angry at my father all these years 'cause he left us. Yeah, my Dad was a dirtbag, but I don't blame him for our problems. It's Michael Myers. It's always been Michael Myers."

Sally gave him a confused look. "You really blame Michael?"

He nodded. "I've always suspected that he wasn't human, and our visit to that nuthouse today confirmed it. Problem is...Mom doesn't see it. She loves him too much to see what he really is. He's got her wrapped around his finger."

"What do you mean, he's not human? I mean, yeah, he murdered five people but still..."

"He's like this...evil entity. I don't know to describe it and I can't explain how, but Michael ruined her life. And mine."

"Honey, your mother made some poor decisions and married the wrong guy. Everyone does it. You can't blame Michael for the crappy life that you both had."

Gabe shook his head. "Even after she left that hellhole, our family was still cursed. Dad abandoned us just one year after I was born. Kids at school used to make fun of me, called me the 'Boogeyman's brother'. And Mom turned into a basket case. On Halloween, I couldn't go trick-or-treating because I had to stay with her in case she had another nervous breakdown."

Sally sighed softly and leaned on his shoulder again. "Gabriel, you have a wife who loves you. A wonderful, smart boy. And very soon, we're going to move into a beautiful house next to the lake. Still think you're cursed?"

He paused before smirking and tickling the bottom of her foot, making her giggle. "I guess you're my lucky rabbit's foot." After a few minutes of tickling and kissing, they calmed down and held each other. "I just wish she would move on with her life," he said softly.

"She will," Sally gently assured him. "Especially now that she's said goodbye to him."

...

 _ **Smith's Grove Sanitarium**_

 _ **1967**_

"It's a beautiful day that the Lord has made."

One a perfect sunny morning, Penelope and Michael took a walk through the institution's garden, which consisted of roses, petunias, daisies, and so much more. Very few patients were allowed to explore this area due to the staff's fear of them damaging the delicate and exotic plants, but Penelope convinced her co-workers into letting Michael in since he had seemingly become less destructive.

Butterflies of various colors and shapes fluttered about their heads and a few squirrels scurried from one bush to next. Michael spotted a caterpillar slowly crawling on a branch and carefully picked it off. It wiggled and squirmed in between his index finger and thumb, and for a moment, Penelope feared that he would squish the helpless little creature. But he merely studied it for a while before placing it back on the branch, and she quietly sighed in relief. She was proud of how much Michael had improved in the last four years of his time here, and she hoped and prayed that one day the doctors would pass Michael fit to return to society.

As she and Michael stopped the admire the beautiful yellow roses, she heard the sound of branches snapping and turned to see the boy breaking a rose off from the bush. "Oh! Oh, Michael, stop! Don't do that! You'll get us in trouble!"

Then to her surprise, he handed the rose to her as a gift. She was touched by this and smiled warmly at him as she accepted the flower, being mindful of the thorns on the stem. "Thank you, Michael. That is so..."

She trailed off and her eyes widened when she saw blood dripping down Michael's hands. Alarmed, she dropped the rose and immediately inspected his hands. The cuts on his fingers and palms were obviously made by the thorns after he carelessly grabbed the stem.

"Good Lord, let's get that cleaned up right away."

...

Later that afternoon, Penelope took Michael to the office of Marion Chambers, and she sat in a chair and waited patiently as the nurse tended to Michael's wounds. She held the rose that Michael had picked for her, his blood still on the thorns.

"Annnnd done." Marion finished wrapping the bandages around Michael's hands and ruffled his blonde hair. "You're such a good patient, Michael."

Just then Dr. Loomis came rushing into the office with a worried expression. "I heard Michael hurt himself. Is he alright?"

"Oh, he'll be fine, doctor," Marion assured him. "He was playing with the roses and pricked his hands and fingers. Nothing fatal."

Loomis glowered at Penelope. "You let him get hurt," he hissed. "You knew the rules, but you let him touch the roses anyway?"

"Sam, children hurt themselves," Penelope defended, keeping her voice calm. "These things happen."

"Well, they're not _supposed_ to happen!" Loomis snapped. "Not under your watch! I trusted you with Michael's well-being, but if you can't even-"

"Dr. Loomis!" Marion cried out, catching the psychiatrist's attention. "Good God, it's not a big deal. Michael is fine. And she's right: kids hurt themselves all the time. Overprotective much?"

Loomis took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. "I'll take Michael back to his room. Just don't let it happen again." He wrapped his arm around Michael and led him out of the office.

Penelope sighed and shook her head, gently brushing her fingers over the petals of her rose. She had to agree with him, though, that it was her own fault that Michael hurt himself. She should've kept a closer eye on him and warned him about the prickly thorns.

"You know, that kid really freaks me out," Marion suddenly said to her. "And considering that I work in a madhouse..."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed that he didn't make a peep or even flinch? He acted like he didn't feel a thing. It's just like that incident in the hydrotherapy room."

Penelope cringed at the memory of that horrible day. A year ago, while Michael was lying in a tub of hot water, the nurse in charge turned the heat up too high, and he ended up with severely burned and blistered skin.

"Any other patient in his position would've screamed his head off," Marion continued. "But Michael didn't make a sound. And if the nurse hadn't checked the heat meter in time, he would've been boiled like a frog."

The nun nodded grimly. It was rather strange that Michael showed little to no reaction to pain of any sort. Perhaps he couldn't even feel pain, and that concerned her greatly; without the sensation of pain, his body wouldn't be able to respond to danger and he could end up getting killed one day.

...

When Penelope returned to her apartment later that night, just as she was about to walk into her room, she heard a woman giggling from inside Carter's room across the hall. Although she knew it was rude to eavesdrop, her curiosity got the best of her and she tiptoed to her neighbor's door.

"You gonna clean _that_ up, Mr. Janitor?" the woman said. Then Penelope heard the sound of a bed creaking.

"Oh, you bet," Carter said with a chuckle. "So...same time next week?"

"Ooh, no, not next week. Midterm exams. And I'm about to fail Trigonometry."

Penelope's heart sank when she realized that Carter had invited a girl over to the apartment and that they went to bed together. Before she could process this any further, the woman's high heels clicked as she walked toward the door, so she ran across the hall to her own room. She reached her door in time and grabbed the knob just as Carter's girlfriend stepped into the hall.

Penelope turned around and pretended to be oblivious, giving the woman a friendly smile. "Oh, hello."

The young red-haired woman appeared to be in her early twenties and was shocked to see Penelope. Carter came up from behind her and his eyes went big when he saw his neighbor, then his face flushed from shame as he averted his eyes.

"Oh my god, Carter," the girl whispered harshly to him. "Why didn't you tell me you lived with a nun?"

"It's okay, Jen," Carter whispered back. "Don't worry about it. I'll see you Monday."

Jen rushed down the stairs and avoided eye contact with Penelope, who looked at Carter across the hall with eyes full of disapproval and disgust. The janitor awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, which was covered with hickeys.

"So who was that girl, Carter?" Penelope asked calmly with her arms crossed. "A student at the university?"

Carter nodded, his jaw tight. "Yeah," he said quietly.

She shook her head and scoffed. "I expected better from you, Carter."

"Hey, she's over twenty-one," he defended. "It's not like I'm committing statutory rape."

"It's still fornication."

"Well, excuse me for not waiting until I get married!" he snapped. "I mean, come on, Sister, let's face the facts. Who wants to marry a loser janitor? Huh?"

Penelope sighed softly and shook her head again. "I never thought you were a loser, Carter. But tonight, you've gravely disappointed me." She turned back to her door and turned the knob.

"Wait," Carter said in a gentler voice, stopping her. "Sister...I'm sorry. But I can only wait for so long, you know? Maybe it's easy for you to be celibate, but for me."

She looked back at him and smiled sadly, her eyes now filled with pity. "Believe me, it's not easy." Then, without saying another word, she softly closed the door behind her and went straight to her bed. She fell to her knees and buried her face in the sheets, sobbing and praying to God to give her strength.

She hadn't realized that she was still clutching the yellow rose, it's thorns digging deep into her fingers and palm. But the only pain she was feeling at that moment was the pain of a broken heart.

 **Thanks for your reviews for the last chapter! Please keep 'em coming!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you all so much for your reviews!**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _ **Craighead, Illinois**_

 _ **October 31, 1988**_

"Leave me alone!" Gabe yelled, but a kid roughly shoved him against a locker. A trio of bullies cornered him and their leader, Tim Sanders, grinned sadistically as he stood over the shorter and younger student.

"Or what?" Sanders mocked, jabbing his finger at Gabe's chest. "Your brother's gonna break out of the asylum and kill me?"

Gabe angrily slapped his finger away. "Shut up! He's not my brother!"

"You sure about that?" Sanders turned to his two friends and nodded. One of them pulled something out of his backpack and it was revealed to be a white mask that looked almost exactly like the one Michael Myers wore except that the hair was blonde.

Sanders and the other bully held Gabe while the kid with the mask pulled it down over his head. Gabe's protests were muffled and the bullies laughed at him.

"I dunno, I can see the family resemblance," Sanders joked.

"What is going on here?"

The mask was suddenly pulled off Gabe's face and Principal Tramer was standing behind them. He held the mask up and waved it in their faces. "This is my old Halloween mask. Care to explain how it got out of the trunk of my car and into your possession?"

For a moment, no one said a word, then one of the bullies finally confessed, "Tim stole your keys and unlocked your car." Sanders immediately gave him a "I'm-going-to-kill-you-later" look.

Tramer shot Sanders a disapproving glare. "Oh, he did? Well, Mr. Sanders, I'll be seeing you in my office after school. Now get to class, all of you." The bullies all left in a huff and Gabe was the last to leave, but Tramer stopped him. "Gabe, if someone is giving you a hard time, you need to let me know."

Gabe smiled a little and nodded. "I know. Thanks, Mr. Tramer."

...

While all the other kids in his neighborhood were getting ready for a fun night of trick-or-treating, Gabe spent the rest of the day raking the leaves for his next-door neighbor. The kindly old Ms. Rosenberg offered to pay him $15 to clean her front yard, and since he didn't have anything better to do, he figured, why not? It was extra money in the piggy bank.

As he worked, a car sped by and someone in the back seat lowered the window and threw a pumpkin at him. He moved out of the way in time and it landed next to his feet. He groaned in disgust as he shook the goo off his shoes.

"Happy Halloween!" the driver laughed as he drove away. Probably some dumb teenagers looking for trouble.

The front door slammed open as a concerned Ms. Rosenberg ran into the yard. "Gabriel, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gabe mumbled. "Just got pumpkin guts all over my shoes."

Rosenberg shook her head in disgust. "Halloween always seems to bring the worst out of punks like them. It's a wicked, pagan holiday. The Devil's time to party."

Gabe smirked to himself. "Sure, Ms. Rosenberg. Anyway, I'm almost done with the leaves. And I'll clean up this mess, too."

She smiled at him and patted his shoulder. "Such a good boy. Well, I'm going back inside to make lemonade. Do you want a glass?"

"Sure," Gabe nodded. Ms. Rosenberg went back inside and he quickly raked the rest of the leaves. He heard the sound of giggling and glanced up to see a family across the street decorating their house with fake spiderwebs, bats, and ghosts made of sheets. A little girl in a black cat costume was being lifted by her father so that she could hang more bats in their tree, and a preteen boy helped his mother spread more spiderwebs all over the bushes.

He envied those kids; it must've been nice to have a normal family to spend a normal Halloween with.

...

He came home at around five and heard the TV in the living room. "Mom, I'm home!" he yelled as he walked into the kitchen and set his bag down on the table. When she didn't respond, he became concerned and decided to check on her. He walked into the dark living room and saw his mother lying on the couch and staring at the television with red, puffy eyes. In her hand was a crumbled up tissue and with the other she held Michael's old bear close to her chest.

 _Today marks the 10th anniversary of the horrific babysitter murders committed by escaped mental patient Michael Myers._

Gabe quietly stood next to the couch and watched the special on Michael's infamous killing spree with her.

 _On the night before Halloween, Myers escaped from Smith's Grove Sanitarium and fled to Haddonfield, Illinois. On the way to Haddonfield, he murdered a mechanic, Derek Coles, stole his clothes, and then left him naked in a ditch. On Halloween night, he murdered three teenagers: Annie Brackett, Lynda Van der Klok, and Bob Simms. The fifth surviving victim, Laurie Strode, fought back and wounded Myers._

 _His psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis, tracked him down and shot him six times, but incredibly, Myers survived and fled. Hours later, Officer Frank Hawkins found and arrested Myers. The deranged killer was sent back to Smith's Grove, but the damage was done._

 _Four people dead, three of them only teenagers. The now retired Sheriff Leigh Brackett still grieves the loss of his daughter Annie, and had this to say on the anniversary of her death._

 _Michael Myers is an animal that's too dangerous to be kept in a cage,_ Brackett told the reporter, his hair now grey and his eyes full of sorrow and anger. _They should've given him the chair for what he did to those kids, but instead they showed him mercy. He didn't show my daughter any mercy that night. I don't understand how_ anyone _could feel any sympathy toward someone like Michael Myers._

Penelope shut her eyes and hot tears leaked out as she hugged the bear tighter and began to sob. She never noticed Gabe walking past the couch and into his bedroom. A couple of minutes later he walked back into the living room and stood in front of the TV. "Mom?"

She opened her eyes and stopped crying when she saw Gabe wearing his paper mache Ninja Turtle mask. He then started to make ninja moves and kicked and punched at the air. This made Penelope laugh weakly and feel a little bit better. "Thank you, sweetie," she croaked. "Why don't you go out trick-or-treating with your friends tonight?"

He lifted the mask off his face and shrugged. "Nah. They never have good candy in this neighborhood."

But Penelope wasn't buying it. "Oh, honey, don't stay here because of me. Go out and have fun."

"Mom," Gabe sat down on the floor in front of her and placed his hand over hers, "it's fine. I'd rather stay here with you." He soothingly rubbed her thumb until her eyelids closed and she drifted off to sleep, and he watched the rest of the program on the floor.

 _No amount of therapy nor medicine will help Michael or change what he is,_ Dr. Loomis grimly told a reporter. _And what he is simply evil. You may call me a fool for believing so, but look into his eyes...then you'll see. Evil cannot be tamed or controlled, and the real fools are those who think it can be. Michael Myers needs to be destroyed, or he will one day escape and destroy again._

Those words sent a chill down Gabe's spine and he instinctively squeezed his mother's hand.

...

 ** _St. Sebastian's Retirement Center_**

 _ **October 31, 2018**_

"Morning, Mom."

Penelope looked up from her cup of coffee to see Gabe standing at her table with a small bouquet of yellow roses in his hand. He smiled as he took a seat next to her and handed her the gift. "Your favorite."

She smiled a little and accepted the roses. "They're lovely," she said softly.

It was awkwardly silent in the cafeteria for a moment until Gabe released a sigh and asked, "Are you still mad at me?"

She paused before she, too, sighed and shook her head. "No. You did nothing wrong. In fact, I want to thank you for bringing me there so that I could say goodbye to Michael."

He nodded slowly. "You feel better now that you did?"

"Maybe a little," she said quietly as she gently rubbed her fingers over the petals. "I was hoping that he would say something to me. I wanted to know if he's forgiven me... or he hates me." She then looked up at Gabe with sad eyes. "Gabe, tell me the truth...do _you_ hate me?"

He was completely taken back by this strange question. "Mom, why would you think that?" he asked incredulously.

"It's just...I know that living with me wasn't easy. It was hell for you." Gabe opened his mouth to argue but she cut him off. "Don't deny it. You weren't able to have a normal childhood because of me. I tried to run from the past, but...it followed me wherever I went. I made mistakes and you had to pay for them." She took his hand and kissed it. "Baby, I'm so sorry.

He placed his hand on top of hers and shook his head. "Mom, I've seriously lost count of how many times you apologized to me. It must've been over a thousand times. Look, I don't resent you for what I had to go through. Yeah, it was rough, but I turned out okay, don't you think? I've got a good life and a beautiful family. I'm just worried about you. We all are."

"Oh, I'll be fine, honey," she gently assured him. "You don't need to worry about me."

Although Gabe knew better and wanted to argue with her, he simply nodded his head. "Okay, but at least spend Halloween night with us. We're doing a trunk-or-treat in front of our house."

She raised an eyebrow. "'Trunk-or-treat'?"

"It's a new Halloween thing. Everyone is doing it. Anyway, while Nate is out trick-or-treating with his friends, you can help Sally and me pass out candy to the kids. So how about it? It's gotta be better than spending Halloween here alone."

Penelope couldn't remember the last time she had fun on Halloween, since she usually spent it crying her eyes out. Perhaps it was time to make new memories and start over now that the past has been put behind her and she has said goodbye to Michael.

She smiled warmly at her son and nodded. "I'd love to go."

...

 ** _Haddonfield, Illinois_**

Meanwhile, miles away at a gas station in Haddonfield, Michael Myers opened the trunk of a car and picked up his withered old mask with his recently bloodied hands. The blank, white face stared up at him with its black empty eyes, and a voice called out to him from the dark abyss that was his mind, demanding him to return to Haddonfield and kill again as the Shape.

He slowly slipped the mask over his face and closed the trunk with finality, sealing his fate and beginning what would be his final hunt.

 **Just when you thought that there would be a happy ending.**

 **By the way, Ben Tramer is a character from Halloween 2.**


	7. Chapter 7

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 **Warning: Animal cruelty, violence.**

 _ **Smith's Grove Sanitarium**_

 _ **1971**_

"I have a surprise for you, Michael."

Penelope placed a cage down on the table in front of Michael and inside was a white rabbit that belonged to a girl from her apartment. The landlord had a strict "no pets" policy and forced the family to give up the animal, so she offered to take it. Although the hospital also forbade animals, she convinced Dr. Wynn that having a pet would teach Michael about compassion and responsibility as well as keep him from spiraling into depression.

She carefully picked up the rabbit and placed it in Michael's lap. "His name is Felix. He's going to be living with us from now on." She smiled as she scratched the top of Felix's head. "He's soft, isn't he?"

Michael stared down at the animal in his lap and slowly stroked his fur, repeating the motion over and over again for five minutes straight, and all the while Penelope watched with pride.

"That's very good, Michael," she said softly. "See? It's much more fun if they're alive, isn't it? And it's good to have friends." She reached down and brushed her fingers through his now brown hair. "You don't have to be alone. You know that I love you, right? So much," she whispered lovingly as she bent down and kissed him on top of his head.

He looked up at her and slowly reached for her veil, and she gasped when he swiftly pulled it off her head, undoing her bun in the process and releasing her long, wavy honey brown hair. "Oh, Michael..." she groaned as she bent down to pick up the bobby-pins that had dropped to the floor. But then she froze when she felt him gently touching her hair and glanced up at him. He ran his fingers through the strands and acted like a small child who was feeling his mother's hair for the first time. Then he did something incredible, something that made her heart soar and want to burst with joy.

The corners of his mouth briefly lifted into a small smile.

For the first time in years, Michael Myers snapped out of his apathy and showed emotion. Whether it was because he was simply amused or was reminded of the soft feeling of his mother's hair, Penelope did not know, nor did she care. This was, without a doubt, the happiest day in her life.

But the smile quickly dropped when he noticed her staring at him and he let go of her hair, redirecting his focus on the rabbit. She merely chuckled and patted his arm when the door suddenly opened.

Dr. Loomis stepped in and had the tape recorder tucked under his arm. "Afternoon, Sister, Michael." He stopped when he saw the rabbit in Michael's lap. "What is this?"

"Michael's new pet," Penelope said with a big grin as she stood back up. "Sam, something wonderful just happened-"

"Patients are not allowed to have pets," Loomis sternly told her as he set the tape recorder down on the table. "You know that."

"Dr. Wynn gave me his consent, but Sam, listen, Michael just-"

"Wynn doesn't know what's best for Michael, but we do. Or at least I do, and I know that Michael isn't ready to have a pet yet." He took the rabbit out of Michael's arms and put him back in the cage. "I'll be taking this," he said as he walked out of the room with the cage.

"Wait, Sam!" Penelope ran after him, leaving Michael alone in the room. The boy silently looked down at the floor and spotted the bobby-pins that fell out of Penelope's hair.

...

"Sam, just wait!" Penelope finally caught up with Loomis in the hall and grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Listen to me for a second."

Loomis sighed as he turned to face her. "All right, I'm listening."

"I understand your concern, but we finally got our big break."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "'Big break'?"

"Just a minute ago, right before you walked in..." She grin from ear to ear as she placed her hands on Loomis' shoulders and leaned in close. "Sam, Michael _smiled_."

At that revelation, his eyes widened with shock. "I'm...sorry. Y-You said that he...smiled?"

Penelope laughed softly and nodded. "Yes, Sam. For the first time in eight years, he showed emotion."

Although Loomis wanted to believe her, there was still some doubt. "Are-Are you sure that it was a smile and not just a...a twitch?"

She rolled her eyes, growing impatient with his doubt. "Sam, please. I know a smile when I see one. Having a pet might be what Michael needs. His parents never once visited him in the last eight years, and we've been his only companions. We've waited so long for this moment, and if you take away that rabbit now, you'll ruin everything."

Loomis considered her words and looked down at the rabbit. Like the animal, Michael was locked in a cage of his own, with no contact with the outside world. He was given so little and had been denied so much already, and to take any more from him would be an injustice, and instead of helping him, Loomis would only damage him even further.

"I understand," he said softly and patted her on the shoulder with a grateful smile. "Thank you, Sister." He walked back in the direction of Michael's room.

Penelope sighed in relief and headed into the other direction, having decided to take a short break and go out to lunch. She trusted that everything was going to be all right now.

...

"Michael?"

When Loomis stepped into the room, Michael was back in his chair in front of the window and didn't even turn to look at him. He put the cage back on the table and took the rabbit out. "Michael, I owe you an apology."

He walked over to Michael and knelt down next to him. Michael continued to look out the window, seemingly ignoring him, so Loomis gently touched his hand. "Michael, look at me." His patient slowly turned his head and looked at him with the same blank, emotionless face. "I'm sorry, Michael. It's my job to help you, but perhaps I've been trying too hard all these years. You probably think that you were sent here as punishment, but I assure you, that's not the case. You're here to get better. We can't give back all the years you've spent in this hospital, and for that, I apologize."

He then placed the rabbit back in Michael's arms. "Here. You can keep the rabbit as a pet. It's the least we can do."

For a moment, Michael stared down at the rabbit and didn't move a muscle, then he started to stroke his fur again in a slow, repetitive motion. Satisfied, Loomis grinned and walked back to the table. "Now then, let's proceed with today's-"

A high-pitched inhuman scream caused Loomis to jump and swiftly turn around. To his absolute horror, Michael had stabbed the rabbit in the neck with a bobby-pin, then with one twist, he sliced the animal's throat open.

"My God!" Loomis yelled as the blood gushed out of the wound and soaked Michael's white pants. He sprinted to the chair and tore the rabbit out of Michael's hands, but it was already too late. "Michael, how could you-?!"

Just as he turned to face Michael, the boy lunged at him with the bloody bobby-pin in his hand and stabbed him in the neck.

Loomis let out a strangled scream as Michael pinned him to the floor and drove the pin deeper, drawing more blood. He struggled to push Michael off, but the young patient was incredibly strong and wouldn't budge. "Help!" he yelled as loud as he could. "Someone help!"

Fortunately a nurse heard his cries and ran to the doorway. "Oh, my god!" she clasped a hand over her mouth when she saw all the blood, then she screamed at the top of her lungs, "CODE VIOLET! CODE VIOLET! WE NEED SEDATION!" She ran inside and tried to pull Michael away from Loomis, but she, too, was unsuccessful.

As Loomis looked up Michael, who was inches from his face, he could see the thirst for blood in his dark eyes. And something else.

Pure evil.

These weren't simply predatory eyes. They were the eyes of the Devil.

Just then Dr. Wynn and another nurse ran in and he had a syringe in his hand. He wrapped an arm around Michael's waist and plunged the needle into the boy's arm. Within seconds, Michael's grip on Loomis loosened and he fell backwards into Wynn's embrace. "That's it," the doctor said softly as he laid Michael down on the floor. "Take it easy."

Loomis couldn't take his eyes off Michael even as the nurses rushed him out of the room. For the first in his entire career, he became very afraid of his own patient.

...

Later that evening, Dr. Wynn summoned both Loomis and Penelope to his office. Loomis, who now wore a neck brace, winced in pain as he sat down in front of Wynn's desk. Penelope offered to help, but he simply brushed her hand away. For a while, no one said a word, and the only sound that could be heard in the room was the tick tock of the clock on the wall behind Wynn.

Finally, the administrator took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair with his hands folded in his lap. "You know, every patient has at least one relapse. But this? This was a total disaster. I mean, what happened? Could you explain this to me, Sam?"

Loomis couldn't shake his head in the brace, so he simply shrugged. "I'm not sure, Terence." But deep down he knew the truth, which neither Wynn nor Penelope would ever believe.

"You're not sure?" Wynn repeated incredulously with a chuckle, then he turned to Penelope. "Any thoughts on this, Sister?"

Penelope swallowed hard and straightened up in her seat. "Well...I'm not an expect like Dr. Loomis, but I do have a theory."

Wynn nodded. "Alright, let's hear it."

"Michael was afraid that Dr. Loomis would take away the rabbit again, so he..." She cleared her throat before continuing. "So he killed it." It was so hard for her to spit out those words. The thought of Michael killing another living creature was very painful and heartbreaking, especially after he had made so much progress in the last eight years.

Wynn burrowed his brow in confusion. "For...what purpose? To get back at Dr. Loomis?"

Penelope shook her head. "No. To, um...in-in Michael's mind, killing the rabbit would ensure that...he could keep it to himself forever. That's my theory, anyway. Dr. Wynn, please... _please_ don't give up on Michael now. We've been making so much progress."

He raised a hand for her to stop. "I know, Sister, and let me assure you, failing Michael is not an option here. But I will say that I am greatly disturbed by this sudden drastic turn of events. Michael turned on his own psychiatrist and almost killed him. Who will it be next time? One of the nurses? _You_?"

"No," she immediately denied. "Michael would never hurt me. I know him."

"Not as well as you think," Loomis muttered.

She looked over at him astounded. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"You couldn't see it if you tried," he said to her. "You love him too much."

"Sam, what are you getting at?" the irritated nun raised her voice at him.

"Alright, let's just take it down a notch," Wynn sternly yet calmly told them. "It's pretty obvious that Michael shouldn't be allowed to have animals in his room, and we can't be too careful around him. We just need to be extra cautious from now on. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," Penelope somberly whispered, feeling utterly disappointed and dismayed. She struggled to remain professional and keep her tears at bay, but she couldn't hold back a shaky sigh.

How could this have happened?


	8. Chapter 8

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 ** _Craighead_ ,** _ **Illinois**_

 _ **October 31, 2018**_

"Hey, is it true that Michael Myers is your uncle?"

Nate gave his friend Lance a weirded out look before he pushed his books into his locker. "No," he scoffed. "That's not true. Where'd you hear that?"

"Rumor," Lance told him. "Some kids are saying that your grandma dumped him in the asylum before your Dad was born."

"Michael Myers wasn't her kid," Nate said as he grabbed his lunch box and slammed the locker shut. "They aren't even related. Grandma worked at the asylum and she took care of him for fifteen years. That's it."

"Gotcha." Lance followed him down the hall and to the cafeteria. "So you still going as a clown tonight?"

"Yeah, but my mom said I can't be a killer clown like I planned," Nate sighed as he sat down at a table, "which really sucks."

"Well, I still have that plastic machete from last year. You can borrow it when we go trick or treating. Your Mom doesn't have to know."

Nate smiled and nodded. "Yeah, good idea. Thanks." He reached into his bag and pulled out a ham and cheese sandwich, but before he could take a bite, a student named Jake Denton approached their table with a notepad in his hand.

"Hi, Nate," Jake greeted him with a friendly grin as he sat down next to him. "How's it going? So, listen, uh, about the report that's due next Monday..."

Nate let out a big sigh and slapped his sandwich down on the table. "Jake, I can't help you with your report," he said, exasperated. "Go to the public library or Google or something."

"Aw, come on, Nate," Jake pleaded. "I need the best _reliable_ information by Thursday or I'll be spending the whole weekend at the library."

Nate only rolled his eyes at him. "Bug off, man, okay? I'm serious."

"Fine, whatever," a disappointed and annoyed Jake left the table in a huff, leaving Nate to eat his lunch in peace.

"What was _that_ about?" Lance asked him.

"He's doing his report on Michael Myers," Nate said before he took a bite of his sandwich.

"For real? Who would want to write a report on a crazy babysitter killer?"

"He probably picked him because he thought it'd be easy, since I know a whole lot about Michael," Nate said sarcastically.

"Well...do you?"

"No, we never really talk about him. And even if we did, I still wouldn't help him, 'cause one, it's cheating and I could get expelled, and two, I'm sick of people asking me questions about Michael all the time. I mean, I wanted to be popular, but this is ridiculous."

"I dunno. I think it's kinda cool, all the attention that you're getting."

"Trust me, isn't it. That's one skeleton that should've been kept in the closet."

"Don't you mean five?" Lance joked.

Nate looked at him unamused and opened his can of cola. "Shut up," he grumbled.

Although he wasn't bullied like his father during his own childhood, it was still hard to be associated with the infamous babysitter killer from Haddonfield. Many kids asked him questions to which he didn't know answer, mostly about Michael's backstory. One kid even asked him if there was some kind of curse that made Michael kill all those people, including his own sister. Nate assured him that it was Michael's mental illness that drove him to commit those murders, but deep down, he suspected something much more sinister was behind all of it. Even his Dad believed that.

...

 _ **Haddonfield, Illinois**_

 _ **Mt. Sinclair Cemetery**_

A young couple stood before a small tombstone and the woman stepped forward to place a bouquet of flowers in front of it. "Happy Birthday, Dad," she whispered as she brushed her fingers over the engraved name.

Her boyfriend stood at the side and waited patiently, and he wrapped a comforting arm around her when she walked back to his side. "You ready to head back?" he asked her softly. She nodded and they turned back toward the car that was parked next to the sidewalk.

But then the woman spotted something unusual and stopped walking. "Hal, what's that?" she asked as she pointed to a tree to her right.

Her boyfriend followed her gaze but saw nothing. "What's what?"

"You don't see it? Up there in that tree?"

He squinted his eyes and looked harder, and finally he found what she was pointing to. Something was hanging from one of the branches, and it almost looked like a...

"Oh, god. Lisa, stay here." He slowly walked over to the tree and kept staring up through the leaves and branches. As he got closer, he could make out a heavily stained, faded pink dress and a pair of brown, bony feet. "Sh*t...!" He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out his phone.

"Hal?!" Lisa called to him in panic. "What is it?!"

"Don't come over here, Lisa!" Hal warned as he frantically dialed 9-1-1. Within seconds, the dispatcher, a woman, answered.

 _9-1-1. What is your emergency?_

"Yeah, uh, I-I think someone committed suicide. A-A woman, probably. She hung herself. We're in Sinclair Cemetery."

 _Okay, we're sending a squad car and an ambulance over there right now._

"Okay, I-I don't know how long she's been..." He looked back up at the swinging body, which slowly turned around and he could finally see her face. "...dead."

The corpse had already decomposed years ago, the flesh rotted to the bone and eye sockets empty.

Just when he began to wonder whether this was real or some sick Halloween prank, the neck sudden snapped in half and the torso came tumbling down toward him. Hal quickly moved out of the way in time, but in the process he fell backward into a large hole and grunted as he landed on his back.

"Hal!" Lisa hurried over there and looked down at him. "Are you okay?!"

Hal groaned as he slowly sat up and rubbed his now pounding head. "What'd I fall into?"

"I-I think it's an empty grave."

He looked at his surroundings and realized that she was right. Then the pieces started to come together. "Did it belong to a woman?"

She glanced up at the tombstone and read the name that was engraved on the stone: JUDITH MYERS. "Yeah, it did. But how did you know?" Just then she heard the sound of leaves crunching under someone's feet and turned to see a man in a blue jumpsuit walking toward them. "Hold on, someone's coming. I'll get help."

Hal could only sit and listen as his girlfriend ran to the stranger and ask him for help. "Excuse me, sir. Thank God you're here. My boyfriend fell into a hole and-" All of sudden she began to scream and he could hear her kicking the leaves in a struggle.

"LISA!" He jumped up and started to claw his way out of the hole, but the dirt was too soft and muddy and he'd only fall back down every time. Just as when he was about to try again a fourth time, the screams and struggles stopped, and the feeling of dread immediately filled him. "Lisa...? Baby?"

The leaves crunched again as someone slowly approached the hole, and he instantly reached for a large rock to use as a weapon. The stranger had finally revealed himself to Hal and just stared down at him with large black eyes and an expressionless white face. It took Hal a moment for him to realize that he was actually wearing a mask.

He snapped out of it and threw the rock at Michael, but with one powerful swipe, the killer shattered it before it could hit him. "Holy sh*t...!" he whimpered as the pebbles fell down on his head and he backed into the wall of earth.

Michael then stomped over to the tombstone, picked it up with little effort, and raised it over his head.

Hal's eyes went wide and he raised his hands, pleading with the killer to no avail. "Oh, god, please, no. Please no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! NO! _NO!_ "

CRASH!

...

 ** _Smith's Grove Sanitarium_**

 ** _1972_**

 _I wish I had you all alone_

 _Just the two of us_

 _I would hold you close to me_

 _So close to me_

Penelope had brought a record player with her to the hospital along with a small chocolate cake for her and Michael to enjoy, for today was her birthday, and she wanted to celebrate it with the person she loved the most. They sat at the table together, eating the cake and listening to her favorite songs.

"Michael, today is my birthday, you know," she told the fifteen year old patient with a smile as she stood up from her seat and walked over to Michael. "And you know what would be a good gift? A dance." She extended her hand out to him. "Will you dance with me? Just for tonight?"

The ever-silent boy took her hand and got out of his seat, and she led him to the middle of the room. Wrapping her arms around him, she started to slowly move her feet, and he embraced her back and moved with her. It was a simple slow dance, and they swayed back and forth in a circle, but it was beautiful moment between mother and son.

 _Together we walk hand in hand_

 _Just the two of us_

 _I will love you to the end_

 _And beyond the end_

"You know, Michael," she whispered, "after they release you from this awful place, you could move in with me. I've taken care of you for eight years now, and I'll take care of you until the day I die. It'd be just the two of us. We're all we need." She stopped dancing and pulled away with her hands on his shoulders. "You don't need to worry about losing me. We'll be together forever. I promise."

She then pulled off her veil and undid her bun so that her hair would flow freely. She knew that Michael liked feeling her hair so she allowed him to run his fingers through the strands. She smiled and kissed his forehead before pulling him into another hug, and he continued to touch her hair with a tenderness that he rarely showed to anyone.

She belonged to him and him alone.

...

 _ **Haddonfield, Illinois**_

 _ **1978**_

"Lonnie Elam said never to go up there," Tommy Doyle said as he pointed to the now empty Myers house. "Lonnie Elam said that's a haunted house. He said real awful stuff happened there once."

Laurie Strode chuckled and shook her head, patting the young boy the back. "Lonnie Elam probably won't get out of the sixth grade."

Tommy smiled at her joke. "I gotta go. I'll see you tonight."

"Bye!" she yelled to him as he ran across the street, then she walked down the sidewalk and began to sing softly to herself.

 _I wish I had you all alone_

 _Just the two of us_

 _I would hold you close to me_

 _So close to me_

She continued on her way to school, unaware that someone was secretly watching her from behind, breathing heavily.

 **Happy Thanksgiving! Let me know what you think after the holiday! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _"Ms. Wilson, can you give us some of your time? A statement, maybe?"_

 _"Please, please go away."_

 _"Michael Myers, killed four people on the night of October 31. Do you feel responsible for what happened?"_

 _"No, no, I don't. Now please-"_

 _"Why did you leave Smith's Grove two days prior to his escape? Was he too much to handle?"_

 _"No, of course not. I loved him like a son. I still do. I left because...because I made some mistakes."_

 _"What mistakes?"_

 _"...I have to go pick up my baby. Excuse me."_

 _..._

 _"Dr. Samuel Loomis, January 22, 1979. Do you wish to give a statement regarding your former patient, Michael Myers?"_

 _"My suggestion is termination. Death is the only solution for Michael. There's nothing to be gained from keeping evil alive. A shot of sodium thiopental would render him unconscious. I'll be with him to make sure his life is extinguished. My ear on his chest to hear for myself that his vitals no longer function, and immediately incinerate the body. It needs to die. It needs to die! IT NEEDS TO DIE!"_

 _ **St. Sebastian's Retirement Center**_

 _ **October 28, 2018**_

"Can't you understand English? I said, _piss off_!" Gabe confronted two young podcasters, Aaron Joseph-Korey and Dana Haines, outside the retirement home. He stood in front of the entrance with his arms crossed and prevented them from going inside.

"We just need a few minutes with your mother, Mr. Wilson," Aaron calmly told him. "Please. Sister Penelope can provide us the best insights into Michael's story. She spent the first fifteen years with him at Smith's Grove."

"Tell me something I don't know," Gabe spat. "Look, Michael is not in our lives anymore, and we intend to keep it that way. We have had enough journalists and reporters and authors bugging us and asking us all sorts of questions."

"What if we paid you?" Dana offered, earning a shocked look from her partner.

Gabe looked at her with disbelief and snorted. "Seriously? You think you can bribe me?"

Dana shook her head and tried to explain. "No, no, no, of course not. We just-"

"That bastard put my mother through hell. Don't you think she's suffered enough? I am not gonna make her relive all that no matter how much you pay me." He was about to turn and walk back inside when he noticed the disheartened looks on the journalists' faces, and the anger in him immediately turned into pity.

Although they were just as annoying as the other persistent journalists that came to him for information, they did come a long way just to interview him and anyone else who personally knew Michael. They were desperate enough to even offer him a payment for his mother's side of the story. If he turned them away now, he would feel like garbage, but then again, he would feel even worse if he let them in and ask his mother questions.

So they would have to reach a compromise, and he had a proposal.

...

"You said you like it black, right?" Gabe asked Aaron as he handed him as cup of coffee.

The British journalist smiled and nodded. "Yes, thank you."

He took them to his house and allowed them to do an interview in the living room. Any questions that they had for Penelope, they could ask him instead, and he'd provide them all the information about Michael that he had learned from his mother. Although they initially wanted to interview Penelope, the best source of information, it was the best deal that they would get.

"So before we begin," Gabe sat down on the couch across from them, "I have to ask you something first. You're not working for CNN, are you?" They both blinked at his question. "No? Okay, good. Just checking."

Dana chuckled and turned on the tape recorder. "So let's start with your mother, Sister Penelope. Tells us about her employment at Smith's Grove."

"Well, what do you know so far?" Gabe asked her.

"We, uh, know that she was in the St. Scholastica Sisterhood before she volunteered to look after Michael Myers," Aaron said. "She worked at the sanitarium for fifteen years, but for some reason, she quit two days prior to his escape. We were hoping that she would tell us why."

Gabe sighed softly and glanced toward the large window. "I'll tell you why. She got pregnant."

"With you?"

"Yeah. She was eight months pregnant when she left that sh**hole. She obviously couldn't take care of both me and Michael."

"So you think Michael escaped to find your mother, and he murdered four innocent people simply out of rage? Rage over her leaving?"

"He killed those people because he's pure evil. Simple as that."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Evil?"

"All of the so-called experts think that he's a human being who's just sick in the head. Even my mother became convinced that he could be cured with love and prayer. But she was fooling herself. Nothing can cure evil."

"You presume that he's some supernatural force, then?"

"The guy was shot six times and fell off a balcony. Who survives that? Even his psychiatrist Loomis knew that he wasn't human. And that girl Laurie Strode, the sole survivor, called him the Boogeyman. Now I don't know if he's really the Boogeyman or not, but I do know that he's not just some deranged seriel killer, and no one can convince me otherwise."

"What was it like for your mother after she left Smith's Grove?" Dana asked.

"Forty years of hell. She had to raise me alone after Dad walked out on us. She still has nightmares, but every Halloween night she has these...episodes. Hallucinations, emotional breakdowns..." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "...even suicidal thoughts."

"I see," Aaron said softly. "Has it been hard for you, too?"

"Oh, yeah. Kids at school picked on me, called me Michael's 'brother'. Plus I didn't have a father in my life. Every kid needs a Dad, but mine was a class-A scumbag."

"When was the last time you've spoken with your father?"

Gabe felt his left throat tighten and swallowed. "About twenty years ago, when I was nineteen. He got arrested that year for manslaughter, accidentally killed his second wife after he pushed her down the basement stairs. Anyway, uh, I paid him a visit in jail and he...told me some things."

"What kind of things? Anything in regards to Michael Myers?"

"He, uh, told me that my mother..." He paused as he could feel his chest getting heavy, then he let out a shaky sigh. "You know what, let's change the subject, okay? I don't want to talk about my father anymore."

Aaron looked at him confused but nodded. "Alright. So I read that although Michael has never spoken a word, he displayed some emotion but only in front of your mother."

Gabe smirked bitterly. "Yeah, Mom claims that he smiled at her once...right before he tried to kill Loomis. That was day when Loomis realized that Michael couldn't be helped. Mom never gave up on him, though. She even promised that she would take him home with her after he got better. But needless to say, he never did get better."

"One more question, Mr. Wilson. According to police reports, on the night Michael escaped, he wrote one word in blood on his door: Sister. There is a theory that he wrote that word as warning that he was coming for her. Do you believe that's true?"

Gabe merely shrugged. "I'm not sure. I don't know what goes on in his head, and to tell you the truth, I don't _want_ to know. So...that's it? We're done?"

"Yes, sir," Aaron said as he and Dana grabbed their belongings and got up from their seats. "We can't thank you enough for your time. And to show our appreciation..." He reached into his shoulder bag and pulled something out. "...we've brought a gift for your mother."

It was the head of Michael's old teddy bear Thomas. "We thought she would love to have this," Aaron said as he placed it in Gabe's hands.

Gabe looked down at the head in shock. "How'd...how'd you get this?"

"We've aquired it from the attorney general's office, along with a few other things."

Gabe glanced up at him. "You mean...you have his... the actual...?"

Aaron knew what he was indicating and nodded. "Would you like to see it?"

Although he knew that he would regret it, Gabe nodded with a tight jaw. He just had to see it for himself. He watched as the journalist slowly reached into his bag and pulled out Michael's withered old mask. He instantly felt a shiver go down his spine as the empty black eyes looked up at him.

It was like staring at the face of evil, itself.

...

 _ **Craighead, Illinois**_

 _ **October 31**_

"Oh, I haven't seen these guys in years," Penelope said as she looked at the Ninja Turtles masks in the Halloween aisle. Gabe and Sally had decided to take her shopping with them for some family bonding time. She took a Leonardo mask off the hook and showed it to Gabe. "You remember how obsessed you were with them?"

Gabe chuckled and nodded. "Practically every kid in America was obsessed with them at the time."

"The blue one was your favorite, right? You know, I really wish you had gone trick-or-treating with the other kids."

He only shrugged. "Hey, way I see it, I avoided eleven years of being egged and pranked. And I was the only kid in my class who didn't have cavities."

She laughed at his joke and put the mask back on the hook. "Yes, you're right about that."

Just then Sally came walking down the aisle with a bag of Butterfingers in her hand. "The last one," she grumbled. "Can you believe it? I couldn't even find one bag of Snickers in this place." With exasperation, she threw the bag into the cart. "Told you we should've gone shopping for candy at least a week before Halloween."

"We've got plenty, hon," Gabe calmly assured his wife. "Besides, the price is half-off on Halloween."

While Gabe and Sally continued to chat over candy and prices, Penelope went back to looking at all the Halloween decorations, costumes, and props. Some were cute and adorable, with smiling jack-o-lanterns and friendly-looking ghosts, while others were vile and horrifying. One prop in particular caught her attention: an animatronic Jason Voorhees that held a bloody machete in its hand. It was about 6 feet tall and towered over her, the eye holes in its hockey mask dark and empty. Such a frightening prop could give trick-or-treaters nightmares.

"What a dreadful thing," she whispered to herself with disgust.

Just as she was about to turn, a strong hand grabbed her by the shoulder and she spun around to see a younger masked Michael Myers towering over her and raising his knife. Before she could even scream, he drove the blade into her chest, and she let out a choked gasp as she stumbled backwards into the other rack, completely knocking it down.

Gabe quickly turned when he heard the ruckus and was horrified to see his mother sliding to the floor and clutching her chest. "MOM!" He immediately dropped his things and ran to her while a panicked Sally dialed 9-1-1 on her phone. "Mom, are you alright?!" he knelt down beside and took her trembling hands. "Mom, talk to me!"

But all she could do was breathe in raspy gasps and stare at the killer who was standing behind her son. He stared back at her with his black, empty eyes for a moment before he slowly turned and walked away. Neither Gabe nor Sally seemed to even notice him. Was he even real?

Gabe's frantic voice faded away as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

...

 _ **Haddonfield, Illinois**_

 _ **October 31, 1978**_

Michael didn't scream as he fell off the balcony, but Loomis heard the sickening thud of his body hitting the ground. The psychiatrist slowly lowered his smoking pistol and sighed in relief. It was finally over. The evil was gone.

"It _was_ the Boogeyman," he heard a shaken Laurie whisper.

He turned to her and nodded with a grim expression. "As a matter of fact, it was."

Was, not is. No man could survive that fall, especially not after being shot six times. Then again, Michael Myers was no man. He had to be sure. He walked over to the balcony and looked down, expecting to find a body.

But there was nothing. Michael was nowhere in sight.

The Boogeyman was still alive.

...

He breathed heavily behind his mask as he stumbled down the empty streets, his jumpsuit soaked with his own blood that was seeping through the bullet holes. He could feel his strength quickly leaving him, and the path before him seemed to stretch further and further away. At one point, he tripped over something, possibly a pothole, and couldn't get back up, so all he could do was lie there until death finally took him.

The cool autumn breeze knocked the dying leaves off their branches and they all fell upon him like colorful rain. Inside one of the houses to his left, funky music played as some teenagers partied and drank, completely unaware that a man was dying outside on the street. A black cat that happened to be nearby smelled his blood and curiously approached him, but the moment its nose touched his calloused hand, it tensed up and hissed threateningly before it scurried away.

For a while, he was all alone, covered in leaves and slowly bleeding to death, when all of a sudden he heard what sounded like someone's shoes click-clacking on the pavement. He managed to barely lift his head and saw a blurry figure slowly walking toward him. When it got close enough, he could make out a familiar face.

It was Sister Penelope, wearing her usual nun clothes. But her eyes were hallow and black instead of brown and full of life, and her face was pale and white as a sheet. She knelt down and caressed his face the way she used to, and although he wore a mask, he could still feel her warm touch. "Michael," she said in a soft, soothing voice, "remember our promise? We swore that we would be together forever. You can't die now."

He felt the nun rest her head on top of his and rub the back of his neck. "You need to stay alive, so that one day we will find each other. I'll be waiting for you, Michael."

And with a gust of wind, she vanished, and he was alone again. But he had somehow found the strength to get back up on his feet and the pain from the bullets was gone. There was only the determination to survive and reunite with his Sister.

Just as he was about to take a step forward, he heard a car roaring down the street behind him and come to a screeching halt. He slowly turned around to face the driver, who was a police officer, and sitting next to him in the passenger seat was Dr. Loomis. The vehicles flashing blue and red lights caught the attention of the partying teenagers and they peeked out the window.

His former psychiatrist stepped out of the patrol car and approached him with his gun raised.

"Hey, hey!" Officer Hawkins shouted after him. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"What should've been done years ago," Loomis declared as he pressed the barrel against Michael's forehead.

Michael just stood very still and stared at him, showing no fear.

"It is time, Michael," Loomis said softly as he prepared to pull the trigger.

"STOP!" Hawkins pulled out his own gun and pointed at Loomis' head. "Don't make me do it. Put the gun down now."

"He has to die!" Loomis shouted without taking his eyes off Michael. "The evil has to die!"

"Both of you will die if you don't stand down," Hawkins threatened. "Come on, don't throw away your life like this. Let him face justice for his crimes."

"Justice? This IS justice! If you let him live, you'll regret it someday!"

"I am obligated to enforce the law, and what you're about to do is murder. I'll kill you if I have to. Come on, doc, is he really worth it?"

Loomis ignored the officer's pleas and refused to lower the gun or release the trigger. "This is the only way."

Before he could pull the trigger, Hawkins swiftly pulled out his nightstick and hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out. The psychiatrist dropped to the ground, but Michael stayed where he was. He allowed the officer to put him in cuffs and escort him to the patrol car.

Before he stepped into the back of the vehicle, he turned his head and saw Penelope standing in the middle the street, her veil flowing in the wind.

"I'll be waiting for you, Michael," he heard her repeat in his head.


	10. Chapter 10

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 **WARNING: Disturbing and graphic content in this chapter. Rated M just to be safe.**

 _ **St. Sebastian's Retirement Center**_

 _ **October 31, 2018**_

The young receptionist lazily chewed on her bubblegum as she played Candy Crush on her iPhone. She didn't even notice a man walk in through the front doors, and before she could even look up, the phone started to ring and she quickly answered. "St. Sebastian's Retirement Center, how can I help you?"

From the corner of her eye she saw a figure standing at the counter. "I'll be with you in a minute, sir," she said without looking up and continued to speak on the phone. "I'm sorry, what was that?" As she listened, her eyes widened in shock. "Oh, my god. Miss Penny? That's horrible. Okay. Okay, Craighead Baptist Hospital." She quickly jotted down the name and address of the hospital on a small piece of paper. "Thank you so much. Bye."

She hung up and lifted her head. "Can I help-?"

The stranger suddenly grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her seat. She let out a strangled scream as she looked into the black empty eyes of her attacker. He slowly squeezed her neck until it snapped in half, instantly killing her. Her limp body was dropped onto the desk and it slipped to the floor.

Michael picked up the paper and put it in his breast pocket before he headed down the halls.

...

He turned on the lights and stepped into the room, looking around at Penelope's possessions. The marble crucifix, the Minion pumpkin, the yellow roses that were now in a vase, and the Old Testament Bible that lay on her pillow.

He spotted several framed pictures that stood on the window sill and looked at them more closely. He picked out the small portrait of Gabe when he was a child and held it in his hand. As he stared at it, his breathing became heavier and angrier and then he suddenly smashed the glass with his other hand. His knuckles bled but he didn't feel any pain. He dropped the broken frame and crushed it with his foot.

The sound of a wheelchair squeaking caused him to slowly turn his head. An elderly bald man with large glasses stared at him puzzled as he squinted his eyes.

"Phil?" the old man rasped, inching his wheelchair closer toward the doorframe. "Philly, is that you?"

Michael just stared back at him, standing very still.

"Mister Goldmire," a woman's voice called out to him from down the hall. "Leave Miss Penny alone."

But the deluded resident remained where he was, staring at Michael. "Why don't you ever call me, Philly? You never call. Not even on my birthday."

A middle-aged nurse walked up to him and grabbed the handles of his wheelchair. "Alright, Mister Goldmire, time for your meds." Just as she was about to wheel him away, she glanced up and was shocked to see a masked stranger standing in Penelope's room. Was he a robber? And more importantly, did he have a gun on him?

She let go of the wheelchair and slowly raised her hands. "Al-Alright," she said nervously. "We don't want any trouble. Just take what you want and go."

But Michael slowly and ominously walked toward her. She backed away as he got closer and turned to make a run for it. But he was much quicker and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her into the room with him as she screamed and struggled to free herself. He slammed the door shut, leaving Goldmire alone in the hall. A sickening thud was then heard and the nurse's muffled screams suddenly stopped.

...

"Cripes," Officer Walker muttered in disbelief as he and his partner Miller looked at the mess.

The unlucky nurse lay dead in a pool of her own blood with her chest ripped open, like a wild animal had attacked her. Her head had also been split open, apparently with the vase which now lay in pieces next to her body, but the roses were gone. Not even a petal had been left befind.

Another employee came back from her lunch break about an hour ago and found the bodies, but Michael had already left. The police arrived less than ten minutes later and investigated the crime scene. Unfortunately their only witness was a senile old man, whose credibility was questionable.

Walker sighed as he rubbed his temples. "Sick f**ks get crazier every year, I swear to God."

Miller shook his head. "I know, right? Whoever this guy is, he's mad at someone." He then held up an evidence bag that contained the broken picture frame. "Any idea whose picture this is?"

"The other nurses said that this room belongs to Penelope Wilson," Walker said, "a retired nun who used to work at Smith's Grove Sanitarium. That's a picture of her son when he was a kid."

"Wait, isn't that the same nun who looked after that Myers guy? You know, the Halloween babysitter killer?"

"Guess so. And guess what? A bus that was transferring some patients from Smith's Grove to Glass Hill crashed last night. And can you guess which one of those nutcases is still on the loose?"

"Oh...you gotta be sh**ting me."

"I'm gonna ask our witness a few questions. Keeping looking for any else out of place." Walker stepped out of the room and leaned against the wall for a moment, trying to process all of this.

Two women were murdered, each in a brutal manner. One had her neck snapped in half. The other had her skull split open and her heart had been ripped out of her chest. What kind of monster would do that to innocent people? No wonder this Penelope left him.

He proceeded to Goldmire's room, and the old man was sitting on his bed with a nurse next to him. "Mister Goldmire, I'm Officer Walker. I want to ask you about what happened to that nurse. You say you saw the guy who did it?"

Goldmire nodded. "It was Philly."

Walker raised an eyebrow. "Philly?"

"His son," the nurse softly told him. "But he lives in San Francisco, and he hasn't paid a visit in years." She then mouthed the word as she nodded to Goldmire, "Alzheimer's".

"I see," Walker nodded. "And, uh, what was...'Philly' doing in Miss Penny's room?"

"I don't know," Goldmire said as he shook his head. "But he walked out of here with some flowers. Yellow roses. They were beautiful."

"Roses? Did he take anything else?"

"No. I don't think so. He didn't even say goodbye," Goldmire added sadly. "He didn't say anything at all."

Walker took out a notepad and wrote down everything that the elderly man had told him. "What was he wearing?"

Goldmire's brow furrowed and his nose wrinkled as he tried to remember. "Some kind of blue...jumpsuit. Like a...mechanic's. But that's odd because Philly's a math teacher. At least...I think he still is." His lower lip began to tremble and he turned to the nurse, visibly distressed. "Why doesn't Philly ever come to visit? Why doesn't he call?"

The nurse gently shushed him and soothingly rubbed his back. "It's alright, Mister Goldmire."

Just then Officer Miller came running into the room, his eyes big and his face sickly pale. "Walker?" he panted. "You need to look at this."

Walker quickly followed his partner back to Penelope's room. "What you got, Miller?"

Miller pointed to the Minion pumpkin on the dresser. "Look inside and you'll see," he said with fear in his voice.

Confused, the other officer approached the dresser and peeked into the small pumpkin. What he saw made him cry out in horror and jump back. He clamped a hand over his mouth as he doubled over and started to retch and cough.

Inside was a human heart, presumably the nurse's.

"Sh**!" Walker gasped. "Sh**! That motherf***er!"

"And there's something else," Miller said. He closed the door and revealed what had been written in blood on the wood:

 _SISTER_

* * *

 ** _Smith's Grove Sanitarium_**

 ** _1972_**

"SAM!" Penelope shouted as she slammed the door open.

The sudden intrusion caused Dr. Loomis to jump with a startle and nearly fall off his chair. "Good Lord...! What on Earth's gotten into you, Sister?"

The nun walked up to his desk and angrily slapped her hands on the wood. "What's this I hear about you asking the board to deny Michael his freedom?" she demanded.

Loomis straightened up in his chair and cleared his throat. "Michael is clearly too dangerous to be left out of captivity. He's a danger to society."

Penelope's glare hardened. "Sam, you said I could count on you," she sternly said. "And you're giving up on him."

"There's nothing we can do for him, Sister," Loomis calmly told her. "It's pointless to keep on trying."

"I know what's going on," she hissed as she leaned in closer. "You're _afraid_ of him. Because of what happened with the rabbit. Well, that was _your_ fault, Sam. Michael was doing just fine. He was getting better until you decided-"

"He is _evil_ , Sister!" Loomis suddenly shouted.

Penelope staggered back a little, taken back by his sudden outburst.

Loomis closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling long and slow. "Listen, I've looked into the eyes of psychopaths before, and I could at least see _their_ souls. But in Michael's, there is nothing. Only pitch blackness and emptiness. They're the Devil's eyes."

The nun's brow furrowed. "Are you...suggesting that Michael is possessed by a devil?"

He shook his head. "He _is_ a devil, Sister."

She scoffed. "You're crazier than your own patients." She turned and was about to walk away.

But Loomis stopped her. "Sister!"

With an exasperated sigh, she turned around to face him.

His expression softened. "I've always admired you for your compassion and dedication to your work. And I think of you as a friend. So believe me when I tell you, I am only trying to protect you from him."

"I don't need your protection," Penelope said bitterly.

"He'll _destroy_ you, Sister."

"He won't. Michael _loves_ me. I _know_ he does."

Loomis paused, feeling pity for the nun who had come to love Michael so much, even though that love was unrequited on Michael's part. "Regardless of how you feel, he is _not_ your son. And he does not see you as his mother. Your motherly love has blinded you. I'm sorry, but it's true. You need to let him go now before his hold on you becomes too strong."

Penelope just stared at him with her mouth slightly open, shocked and appalled by his bold statement about her. Then her facial expression slowly twisted with growing anger.

"F**k you, Loomis," she whispered.

The doctor blinked. Did he hear her right? "What was that?"

"F**k you!" the nun repeated louder. "You're a quack _and_ a quitter!" Then she stormed out and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving him completely stunned.

* * *

 ** _Smith's Grove Sanitarium_**

 ** _October 31, 1978_**

On the morning after Michael's escape, Dr. Loomis followed a nurse to the patient's room, the former chewing out the latter as they walked down the halls together.

"Who was watching him?"

"I don't know."

"You don't _know_?! What do you mean, you don't know?"

"Well, it was supposed to be Bernadie."

"'Supposed to be'?"

"Well, he wasn't here at ten. I don't know what happened."

"Where was he?!"

"Well-"

"Bernadie," Loomis scoffed as he opened Michael's door. The room had been completely trashed, with the table lying on the floor in pieces, the mattress torn up, the paint on the walls peeling off in shreds, and the large window having been shattered.

Another nurse was picking up the debris. "He must've broken the window with his hands."

The first nurse nodded. "He came down the hall, breaking through all the doors, pushing all of the patients outside."

"What was it you wanted to show me?" Loomis asked her.

She closed the door and stepped aside to let Loomis read what have been written in blood on the wood:

 _SISTER_

Upon reading that word, the doctor's face became very grim. There could only be two explanations for him leaving such a cryptic message. One was that he intended to find Sister Penelope, who had recently left the hospital. The other...

Judith Myers.

"Dr. Loomis, have they found him yet?" the second nurse asked him.

Loomis shook his head. "No. But I know where he's going."

* * *

 _ **Haddonfield, Illinois**_

 _ **October 31, 1978**_

The alarm bell continued to ring as he searched throughout the hardware store for supplies. He ended up taking some rope and a few knives, and he was about to leave when something caught his eye.

Hanging on a hook in the Halloween aisle was a simple pale mask with dark brown hair. The black eyes and white complexion reminded him of _her._ The colors of her nun attire.

There were other masks in the aisle that were much more intimidating and frightening, but this was _his_ mask. This would be his new face. The face of the Shape.

He gently took it off the hook and pulled it down over his face, his heavy breathing now muffled.

 **The part where Loomis finds the word SISTER on Michael's door is based on a deleted scene that was only shown on the TV-version of the classic 1978 Halloween movie.**


	11. Chapter 11

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _ **Craighead Baptist Hospital**_

 _ **October 31, 2018**_

"Grandma?" Nate walked into the ICU and approached Penelope's bed. His mother had just picked him up from school and brought him straight to the hospital. Gabe sat in a chair next to her chair and stayed with her all day.

Penelope smiled tiredly at her grandon. "I'm fine, sweetie," she said softly.

"Your Grandma's a little tired," Sally gently told her son. "But she'll be okay."

"This is what happens when you become as old as I am," Penelope told him, then she playfully tapped him on the nose. "So don't you _ever_ get old, Nathan."

Nate grinned. "Okay, Granny."

Penelope sighed. "Well, it looks like I won't be joining your trunk-or-treating tonight. The doctor wants me to stay so they can run more tests."

Gabe reached over and grabbed his mother's hand. "It's okay, Mom. That's not important right now."

"Grandma," Nate gently touched her shoulder, "I'll come back and give you some of my candy after I'm done trick-or-treating."

"Oh, no sweetie," Penelope said. "You don't need to do that."

"It's okay," he assured her. "You have to spend Halloween here and well, that sucks, you know?"

"Nathan..." Sally scolded him.

But Penelope laughed. "Well, that's awfully sweet of you, baby. I look forward to it. You'd better head on home and put on your costume. What are you going as again?"

"A clown," Nate said.

"Oh, how adorable. Sally, you'll take pictures, won't you?"

Sally smiled and nodded. "You know I will."

Penelope then turned back to Gabe and looked at him with warm brown eyes. "You _all_ should get ready for tonight."

Gabe shook his head. "No, I'll stay here with you."

"No, honey, you go back with your family. I'll be fine."

"Mom, you just had a _heart attack_. I'm staying."

"Gabriel, you listen to me. I don't want to ruin another Halloween for you. If you're that worried about me, you can come back after you're done trunk-or-treating. I'll still be here when you get back. Okay?"

Gabe inhaled sharply. He felt conflicted about leaving his mother alone in the hospital. He wanted to be with her in case something went wrong again, but he also wanted to respect her wishes. Staying here would make her feel guilty and he didn't want to do that to her. She had had enough regrets in her life.

With a tense smile, he nodded. "Okay, Mom." He stood up and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll be back later tonight. Call me if you need me."

"I will," she said. "Have a good time."

The family walked out of the room saying their "goodbye"'s and "love you"'s to Penelope, who relaxed and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

* * *

 ** _Craighead, Illinois_**

 ** _1973_**

"Sister, wait!"

Penelope froze with her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned to face Carter. They hardly spoke to each other since the student's visit six years ago and he tried to mend their broken friendship, but she wanted nothing to do with him.

"Yes, Carter?" she said rather coldly. "What is it?"

"Can we talk?" he pleaded with sad eyes. "We haven't talked in years. I want us to be friends again."

She scoffed at him. "I thought you had 'friends' back at the university?"

It took him a moment to realize what she was implying and he somberly shook his head. "No, I quit doing that years ago. I thought about what you said, and well...you're right." He sighed tiredly as he rubbed his face. "It's just that I'm...scared of dying alone, you know?"

Her face softened at his confession and she felt pity for him.

"I was desperate," he chuckled bitterly. "Pretty pathetic, right?"

Penelope paused before she gently took his hand and smiled at him. "Do you wish to ask God for forgiveness then?"

"I already had, Sister. But what I really want..." Carter placed his other hand over hers. "...is _your_ forgiveness."

Seeing the sincerity in his eyes convinced her that he really had changed his ways and she nodded. "I forgive you, Carter."

He seemed relieved and very happy to hear those words. "Thank you so much, Sister."

"Please, call me, Penny."

He blinked, taken back by this request, then he chuckled softly. "Okay, Penny." He awkwardly scratched under chin as he nodded toward the door to his apartment. "So, uh, want to come inside for some lemonade? My mother's recipe," he added with a grin.

Penelope smiled back. "I'd love to."

* * *

 _ **Haddonfield, Illinois**_

 _ **Mt. Sinclair Cemetery**_

 _ **1974**_

Michael knelt before his sister's grave and laid a small bouquet of daisies, her favorite, down on grass. Penelope stood behind him a few feet away, keeping a close on the patient but at the same time giving him his space.

The nun had finally convinced Dr. Wynn to let her take Michael outside to visit Judith Myers at her final resting place. She explained that this would help Michael cope with his sister's death as well as remember the bond they shared before the night of the murder. She had to be with him the whole time, of course, and she had to take one of the hospital's vans.

After ten minutes of paying their respects to Judith, they headed back to the van. But Penelope got an idea as they buckled their seats. She turned to her patient and said, "Michael, would you like to learn how to drive?"

It was completely against hospital rules, but it would be their secret. Penelope truly believed that Michael would one day be released from Smith's Grove and come back to society. Of course, he would need to know how to drive if he were to ever get a job. It would make it easier for him to adapt to the outside world if he could drive a vehicle.

So she drove him to a small abandoned parking lot about a mile away, where she gave him the lessons. He was a little rusty at first, but he gradually got better, and within five months, he was even driving them back to the hospital. Once a week, she'd take him to the cemetery and give him lessons afterwards. No one at Smith's Grove suspected a thing, and this went on for a few years.

* * *

 _ **Smith's Grove**_

 _ **1976**_

In the employee showering room, Penelope stepped into a stall and closed the curtain behind her. For a good thirty minutes, she relaxed as the warm water came down upon her. Her back was to the curtain so she never saw the silhouette of a figure slowly approaching her. A hand reached out and pulled the curtain away, and the moment she felt cold air brush against her skin, she whipped around and screamed when she saw a man standing there.

But then she recognized the face. "Michael?"

Michael said nothing and just stared at her bare body. There was no lust in his eyes, but rather curiosity.

She quickly hid her breasts with her arms and pointed toward the exit. "Out!" she yelled angrily. "Get out of here!"

He did as he was told and calmly walked away. Penelope leaned against the wall, slid down to the floor and hugged herself, mortified and embarrassed. She was sure that she locked Michael's door before she left, so how did he sneak in here?

...

A few months later, Penelope decided to take Carter to Smith's Grove so that he and Michael would finally meet. They walked into Michael's room and found him at the table, drawing on paper with a pencil.

"Michael," Penelope greeted him with a loving smile and peck on the cheek, "there's someone I want you to meet."

Carter grinned at Michael and offered his hand to shake. "Hi, Michael. I've heard so much about you."

Michael merely stared at him as if he were a bug in a jar, and if Carter didn't know better, he'd say that there was also disgust in the patient's eyes.

Just then there was soft knock and Penelope turned to see Dr. Wynn standing in the doorway. "Excuse me, Sister," he said. "Can I have a quick word with you?"

"Of course," Penelope nodded and then turned back to Michael and Carter. "Why don't the two of you get acquainted while I talk to Dr. Wynn? I'll be right outside." She stepped out of the room with the door still open and talked with the doctor in the hallway.

Carter took a seat across from Michael at the table, but since the patient was eerily silent and just stared at him the whole time, he decided to pass the time by studying the drawings. They were actually pretty good, sketches of people, mostly nurses and doctors. There was one of young boy, presumably Michael, holding a nun's hand, and Carter instantly knew that the woman was Penelope.

"These are really good, Michael," Carter said with a smile. "You should pursue a career in art when you get out." Of course, Michael only stared at him, and it was really starting to creep Carter out, so he went back to looking at the sketches.

One drawing instantly caught his eye when he spotted a pair of breasts. It was naked woman taking a shower. The details were amazing, as though it were done by a professional artist, but Michael had to have either used a pornographic magazine or convinced someone in the hospital to pose for him. Carter seriously doubted that they allowed such dirty magazines in a mental hospital, and no nurse in her right mind would undress in front of a patient.

But there was one more possibility, and he prayed that he was terribly wrong.

He looked back up at Michael, who was still staring at him. But somehow he knew that the patient was secretly taunting him, as if he were saying, "I saw them before you did." Then in one swift motion, Michael swiped the drawing out of Carter's hand and tore it up into tiny pieces. At that moment, Carter realized that there was something awfully wrong with Michael, and the whole room seemed to get darker even though it was a clear sunny day outside.

Moments later, Penelope returned and joined them at the table. She was oblivious to the tension between Carter and Michael and looked down at the drawings with pride. "Michael is such a good artist, isn't he?"

Carter didn't want to make a scene in front of Michael and upset him in any way, so he replied with a simple yet nervous, "Yeah."

* * *

 _ **Arrowpoint, Illinois**_

 _ **1997**_

Nineteen year old Gabe nervously tapped the counter as he waited for his father to arrive at the visitation booth. He felt embarrassed and ashamed to be seen visiting a relative in prison.

The old scumbag had recently killed his second wife, albeit accidentally, during an intense argument and had too many drinks beforehand, so he was sentenced to five years in prison, though Gabe believed that he deserved much worse than that.

From the other side of the glass, the prisoner finally showed up and sat down across from him face to face. This would be the first time in years that they would meet again, and had it not been for the photographs of him, Gabe wouldn't have recognized his father.

His curly brown hair was gone; in fact, he hardly had any hair left and it was now grey. But Gabe recognized his square jawline and blue eyes, which squinted in confusion as he stared at his son. They grabbed their phones and the older man spoke first.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" he asked.

Gabe wasn't suprised that his own father didn't recognize him but it nonetheless hurt his heart a little. He hid that pain with a stoic expression and cold voice. "I'm your son, Carter."

Carter raised his eyebrows in shock. "Wait...Gabriel?"

"Everyone calls me Gabe now."

The older man slowly grinned from ear to ear. "My god," he gasped. "I can't believe it. How-How you been, pal? How's your mother?"

Gabe glared at him through the glass and scoffed. "So _now_ you care?"

The smile on Carter's face dropped and he furrowed his brow. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"What do you think? You were never there. You left us 'cause you didn't want to get saddled with a kid you didn't want. And you couldn't keep your hands off another woman's ass."

"Now hold on, your mother said I didn't want you?" There was some anger in Carter's voice.

Gabe chuckled bitterly. "What? You're gonna say she lied to me?"

"Well, it isn't the _whole_ truth. I _did_ want you, Gabe, but I made mistakes. I wish to God I hadn't. Your mother was at fault, too, you know."

"Oh, please. This was a mistake." Gabe was about to hang up the phone and leave when his father slapped the glass.

"Gabe!" Carter begged. "Gabe, listen to me! It was all because of that Michael guy!"

Gabe's heart skipped a beat at the mention of that name. "Michael? You mean, Michael Myers?"

His father nodded. "Penny couldn't stop thinking about that homicidal maniac, even after you were born. I was beginning to worry about both of you so I tried to talk some sense into her. She got all defensive and angry. It was like she had no sense left in that head of hers." His expression then became somber. "She even said that we were never in love to begin with, that it was nothing but lust. I never believed that. I loved your mother, Gabe. I mean, yeah, I had an affair but..."

He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face with his hand as he inhaled sharply and unsteadly. After a brief moment, he regained his composure and looked back up at Carter with watery eyes. "I don't know," he rasped, "She just wasn't the same after that Halloween night. We tried to make it work, but our relationship crumbled anyway. We ended up filing for divorce, and of course, I wasn't a perfect father, so she won custody over you."

Gabe was finding all of this hard to believe. Had his mother been lying to him all these years? "If that's true, why didn't you ever come visit me or at least send a postcard?"

"Your mom would go ballistic every time I would even come near her and I didn't want you to deal with that mess. And as far as postcards go, I knew she would've thrown them away. But believe me, son, it was extremely hard for me." Carter then scoffed and shook his head. "And for her to say that _I_ didn't want you, that's pretty ironic, considering that she..." He trailed off when he realized that he said what he shouldn't have.

But Gabe was now curious. "What?"

Seeing that there was no point in hiding the truth from his son any longer, Carter took a deep breath and told him. "You're old enough to know. She...tried to abort you, Gabe."

All color had been drained from Gabe's face and his heart dropped. "What...?"

"With a coat hanger, at that. But she botched it and had to be rushed to the hospital. She wanted to hide her pregnancy from everyone so she tried to get rid of you. With you out of the way, she would've kept her job at Smith's Grove." Carter looked at his son with eyes full of sadness. "I'm sorry, son, but that's the whole truth."

Gabe's mind was completely blank for a moment and he was numb to the world around him. His mother tried to kill him so that she could stay with Michael? It couldn't be true. Sure, he was unplanned, but she loved him. It was all lie. It had to be.

He looked at his father with so much anger and hatred. "You son of a bitch," he growled. "I don't believe you." He then slammed the phone down and stormed out of the room. His father called out to him from behind the glass but he ignored him.

It would be the last he ever saw his father, who died two years later in prison.

* * *

 _ **Smith's Grove**_

 _ **October 31, 1978**_

Loomis rushed out of the hospital with Wynn following close behind. There was still a chance to capture Michael and stop him from hurting anyone else.

"I'm not responsible, Sam!" Wynn insisted as they stepped outside.

"Oh, no," Loomis replied sarcastically.

"I told them how dangerous he was!"

"You couldn't have. Two roadblocks and an all-points bulletin wouldn't stop a five year old."

"Well, he's _your_ patient, doctor. If you knew precautions weren't strong enough, you should have told somebody."

"I told everybody! Nobody listened."

"There's nothing else I can do."

"You can get back in there and get back on that telephone and tell them exactly who walked out of here last night and tell them exactly where he's going."

" _Probably_ going."

Loomis shook his head and walked to his car. "I'm wasting my time."

"Sam, Haddonfield is a hundred fifty miles away from here. Now-Now for God's sake, he can't drive a car!"

"He was doing very well last night!" Loomis stepped into the vehicle and muttered, "Maybe someone around here gave him the lessons."

And he had a very good idea who that 'someone' was.


	12. Chapter 12

**OK, to clarify things, I never saw the movie "Us" so I had no idea that the Dad was named "Gabe Wilson". Talk about awkward... :/**

 **Well, let's pretend there's no other fictional character named Gabe Wilson.**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 **WARNING: Adult themes in this chapter.**

 _ **Craighead, Illinois**_

 _ **February 14, 1978**_

"That is hilarious, Carter!" Penelope laughed with her neighbor, who just told her a joke.

They sat at the table together in his kitchen, having enjoyed a delicious meal that he had prepared himself. He had invited her over to his apartment room for a "date". Of course, they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend since it was forbidden for a Sister to have a romantic relationship with any man. They were merely friends and nothing more.

Carter walked to the kitchen cabinet and pulled out a bouquet of yellow roses. "Happy Valentine's Day, Penny," he said with a big grin. "Yellow roses are your favorite, right?"

A pleasantly surprised Penelope gasped and accepted the gift. "Oh, Carter, they're beautiful."

"Well," Carter grinned even wider, " _you're_ beautiful."

Hearing those words made her heart flutter and she shyly looked down at the flowers. "You're too kind," she said softly.

He sat back down in his seat, suddenly nervous. "Listen, Penny, I know it's against your faith and all, but..." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He put this off for months but tonight would be the night he finally told her. "...I really like you."

She lifted her head and looked at him with wide eyes.

"And I know you like me, too," he continued as he pointed to his chest. "I can feel it. And you're not happy living as a nun, are you?"

Penelope was getting very uncomfortable and started to get up from her seat. "I have to go. Thanks for dinner."

Carter quickly got up as well. "Wait, Penny, just hear me out," he begged. "Please?"

She looked at him sadly. "I live for my church and for my God, Carter. You can't ask me to walk away from it all."

"Penny," he spoke softly, "you're only human. I get that you want to please God, and I may not know much about religion. But I know for a fact that God wouldn't want you to be so miserable and alone."

Her expression became a little irritated. "Carter, I'm _not_ miserable and I'm _not_ alone. Besides, what do you know about what God wants?"

Now Carter was becoming angry himself. "At least I know evil when I look at it in the face. But for some reason, _you_ can't."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Michael."

Penelope just looked at him astonished.

"Penny," he spoke in a softer tone, "something is very wrong with Michael, and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave Smith's Grove."

She shook her head and started to laugh. "Unbelievable. First Loomis, and now you. Michael is _not_ evil. He's just troubled. But with time and prayer-"

"It's been _fifteen_ years, Penny. He won't be cured no matter what you do. I know you love him, but you can't save him."

There was pause before Penelope stormed out of the kitchen and to her door across the hall.

Carter hurried after her. "Penny! Penny, wait!" He grabbed her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I know how important this is to you-"

She whipped around and shoved him away. "No, you don't!" she yelled angrily. "You don't know what it's like being thrown out by your own family! To be all alone! I understand Michael better than anyone else! I'm all he has left!"

He said nothing for a moment, then he lifted his hand and tenderly touched her cheek. "Penny..."

That touch made her heart beat like it never had before. Those feelings were coming back again. She frantically pulled away and retreated to her apartment, slamming the door behind her.

She tossed the roses on the bed, knelt before her small altar, and began to recite her prayer for purity, "Mary, Mother most pure, and Joseph, chaste guardian of the Virgin, to you I entrust the purity of my soul and body. I beg you to plead with God for me that I may never..."

...

The next morning, Penelope sat at the table with Michael in silence, reading her Bible. She tried to forget all that had happened last night, but she could still feel Carter's hand on her cheek and it gave her...unclean thoughts. She longed to be in his arms, to feel his lips press against hers, to become one with him.

And she couldn't his words out of her head.

 _"I really like you."_

She about jumped out of her seat when she felt a cold hand touch her cheek. "Oh, Michael," she gasped and chuckled. "You scared me. It's not your fault, though. I've been a little...spacy lately." She smiled sadly at him as she placed her hand over his. "It feels like the whole world is against us. But they don't understand. How could they?"

She closed her Bible and sighed softly. "So much has changed over the years. I'm not the same as I was ten years ago. Lately, I've been asking myself, 'Why am I still a nun?' My heart is...conflicted. Maybe Carter is right. Maybe I should leave the Sisterhood. I honestly don't think I belong with them anymore."

Her hand gently squeezed his. "As long we're together, I'm happy. Don't you agree, Michael?"

He didn't answer her, of course, but he pulled his hand away from her face, got up from his seat, and walked over to the bookshelf. He pulled out his old bear Thomas and walked back to the table with it.

Penelope smiled at the bear in his hands. "I haven't seen Thomas in a long time. I can't believe it's been fifteen years since you arrived here." Her smiled dropped when she noticed some speckles of blood on the bear's fur.

Alarmed, she took Thomas from Michael and inspected him. She noticed a small tear in his tummy and could smell blood inside. Quickly she tore the belly completely open and was horrified to see a small heart, a real one that belonged to an animal, possibly a cat.

Letting out a strangled gasp, she dropped the bear and ran out of the room in terror. She sprinted past confused nurses and patients down the halls until she reached the hospital garden, taking a seat on a stone bench.

At that moment, her dream of living a normal life with Michael shattered. It was clear that he was never going to get better and that he would forever stay at the hospital. Tears came down her cheeks and buried her face in her hands as she wept.

It was hopeless.

...

Penelope returned to her apartment with a heavy heart and for a long time all she could was lie in her bed. The bouquet of roses that Carter gave her lay on nightstand, and at one point, she reached across and took one. She rubbed her thumb over the soft petals and thought about how kind Carter had always to be her...and how beautiful his blue eyes were.

She could feel those desires coming back again, but this time, she didn't fight them. Why bother?

Very slowly, she got up from the bed and walked to Carter's door across the hall. She softly knocked on his door and seconds later he opened it. He was surprised to see her with a tear-stained face and without her veil on. He had never seen her honey brown hair before.

"Penny? What's wrong?"

Without saying a word, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. Completely shocked, Carter pulled away.

"Wh-What are you doing?"

After a brief pause, she whispered in a broken voice, "I need you." She placed her hands on his chest and kissed him again.

At first, he didn't respond to the kiss. He was very confused since she flat out rejected him last night. So what changed her mind? Then he slowly opened his mouth and wrapped his arms around her as they kissed passionately. Neither of them could help it; she wanted him, and he wanted her.

They walked into his bedroom and began to undress each other.

* * *

 _ **Craighead, Illinois**_

 _ **October 31, 2018**_

"Say cheese!" Sally cheerfully told her son as she held up her phone and prepared to take another picture of him.

Nate rolled his eyes under his mask and muttered, "Mozzarella." His clown costume composed of big red overalls with multi-colored polka dots, huge yellow clown shoes, and a happy clown mask with a tiny blue party hat.

Sally giggled in delight. "You look adorable."

"Come on, Sal," Gabe laughed from the kitchen as he poured the candy into separate bowls. "Quit embarrassing him."

There was suddenly a knock on the front door and Nate lifted the mask off his face. "That's Lance. I'm heading out."

"Now remember, Nathan," Sally sternly said, "be back home by 7:30, and stay in the neighborhood."

"Okay, Mom," Nate said as he headed for the door with the pumpkin treat bucket.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

Nate stopped, released an exasperated sigh and walked back to his mother. He gave her a peck on the cheek and waved goodbye to his father as he walked out of the house.

Lance was waiting for him on the porch, wearing a Freddy Krueger costume and painted burn scars on his face and holding a plastic trick or treat bag. He looked over Nate's shoulder and waved at Sally with a smile. "Hi, Mrs. Wilson!" he said in a deep Krueger-like voice.

"Hello, Krueger," Sally joked. "Stay out of my dreams, okay?"

Lance pretended to pout. "No fun!" Then he turned to Nate. "Ready to go, Pennywise?"

"Yeah," Nate chuckled. He followed his friend down the sidewalk until the Wilson house was out of sight. "So you got it?"

"Got what?" Lance asked, still using his Krueger voice. "Your birth control pills?"

Nate lightly punched him in the shoulder. "Come on, man."

Lance laughed and went back to using his normal voice. "Chill, dude! Yeah, I got it." He reached into his bag and pulled out a plastic machete. "Here's your weapon."

"Thanks a lot, man," Nate smiled as he took the machete and waved it around a bit before putting his mask back on. "Let's do this."

...

 _ **Craighead Baptist Hospital**_

Penelope's eyes fluttered open in the dark patient room as she slowly awakened. She groaned groggily as she slightly turned her head toward the door...

...and then she gasped when she saw a dark figure sitting in the guest chair next to her bed.

"Shhh, shhh," a man softly shushed her and got up to flip the switch. The lights revealed Michael's current doctor Sartain, his left arm in a cast and sling. "It's alright, Sister."

She blinked a couple of times before she recognized him. "Dr. Sartain?"

"Yes," he nodded and sat back down in the chair. "The retirement home told me you were here."

"Well, wh-what are you doing here in Craighead? Is Michael alright?" She sat up much as she could. "Has something happened-?"

Sartain leaned forward and eased her back onto the mattress. "Please calm down, Sister," he said soothingly.

"You wouldn't have traveled all this way if nothing was wrong," she napped. "Now tell me what happened."

The psychiatrist paused before he sighed and rested his other hand on his cast. "The bus that was transporting Michael and the other patients crashed last night. He is loose."

Those words felt like a ton of bricks that crashed down on her and she instantly felt dizzy. "I...I don't..." She slowly shook her head in denial. "No...no, you're lying."

Sartain shook his head, not a trace of deceit in his eyes. "No, it's true. He is in Haddonfield at this very moment, looking for _her_."

It took her a moment to realize who he was implying. The lone survivor of the 1978 Halloween massacre. The one who got away from Michael. "Laurie Strode?" she gasped.

"He is going to finish what he started forty years ago on, and I have no doubt that he will come after you next. He has already made preparations for your reunion."

"Preparartions? I-I don't understand."

"He stopped by the retirement home and ransacked your room. He also left a message on your door, one word: Sister."

Penelope felt like she was going to faint. "Did he...hurt anyone while he was there?"

Sartain nodded. "He killed two nurses."

"Ohhh...!" She started to sob as she covered her face with his hands. "Oh, no! Michael, no...!" She felt a hand gently touch her on the shoulder.

"You know why he's killing, don't you?" he asked. "It's because he is pure evil."

She lowered her hands from her wet face and looked at him surprised.

"It's in his nature. He kills out of instinct. Everyone called Dr. Loomis crazy, including you, but he was right. Michael is a force of evil that is unbalanced."

"Un-Un...balanced? What are you talking about?"

"Think about it, Sister. He could've escaped from Smith's Grove anytime he wanted to, but he stayed. He endured shock treatments and torturing tests. He tolerated being studied like an insect in a jar. He did it all for _you_ , because you completed him. And then you left in 1978, and he started to kill again. The one force of good that kept him in balance was gone. There is a yin to every yang, and light cannot exist without darkness."

He stood up from his seat and looked Penelope straight in the eye, his dark aura making her feel scared. "It all makes sense now. Only you can stop him. You need each other. You share a natural bond, a symbiotic relationship. Good and evil."

She looked at him like he was insane and shook her head. "No," she said in a shuddering voice. "Leave now."

But then he grinned in a way that made her even more afraid. "I have a confession to make, Sister. That bus crash was no accident. I had to see for myself how the predator would act in his natural environment. But you knew that this day would come, didn't you?"

Now fearing for her life, she reached for the controller which had the emergency call button on her bed, but Sartain swiftly grabbed it first.

"Just hear me out, Sister," he calmly said with a serious face. "You want these killings to stop, don't you? We can still save them. We can save _her_. But you need to come with me."

Penelope could only tremble and shed tears. This madman freed Michael out of curiosity and had unleashed a terrible power that was going to destroy everything in its path, including her family. And he was never going to stop until he found her.

"Nnnnoooo," a moan escaped her throat, which escalated into a shriek as she covered her face with her hands. "NOOOOO! _NOOOOOOOOOO!"_

Sartain could only stand and watch in horror as the elderly woman continue to scream at the top of her lungs until a nurse came running in. That was when he decided to make a run for it before security would arrive. He would have to look for his patient without her assistance.


	13. Chapter 13

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 _ **Smith's Grove**_

 _ **February 16, 1978**_

"Oh, my...is that really Sister Penelope?"

Everyone stared at Penelope as she walked down the halls. She wasn't wearing her usual nun attire, but instead a long-sleeved green shirt and a brown skirt, and her long honey brown hair covered her back. At first glance, they didn't recognize her and thought that she was a visiter or someone who worked in the office. She was stunningly beautiful.

When she stepped into Michael's room, the patient was sitting in front of the window but was already looking her way before she even opened the door, as though he was expecting her. He was eyeing her new outfit with curiosity.

She smiled warmly at him. "Hi, Michael." Then she gestured to herself. "Well, what do you think? I know it's different, but we'll get used to it." She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Guess what? I quit the Sisterhood this morning. I told them that I didn't want to live as a nun anymore. But I'm still your Sister Penelope, and I always will be."

"Sister?" A soft male voice spoke out from behind her. She turned and saw Loomis standing in the doorway. He was shocked at the way his nun friend was dressed. "I...I almost didn't recognize you. Wh-Why are you-?"

"Dressed like this?" she finished for him, then she grinned. "I'm not in the Sisterhood anymore, Sam. I'm just like everyone else now."

Loomis frowned and there was disappointment in his eyes. "Oh. Well...that's too bad." Then he continued down the hall.

A confused Penelope left Michael and ran after Loomis. "Sam, wait! Wait!" When the psychiatrist stopped walking, she asked him, "What did you mean by that?"

Loomis now appeared a bit sad. "Before you arrived here," there was a somberness in his voice, "you were a virtuous and scrupulous person. A woman of God. That's why we hired you, because of your commendable qualities. But since you met Michael, you've changed. You're quick to anger, and lately you've been using foul language-"

"I'm only human, Sam," Penelope snapped. "All these years I've been struggling to keep myself pure for God, but I can only take so much. That being said, I'm still a God-fearing woman and I have no intention on giving up on Michael. I may not be a nun anymore, but I can still be his caregiver."

But Loomis shook his head. "You've been corrupted by him."

She groaned in exasperation. "Oh, come on, Sam. Not this again."

"He's not like the other patients here, Sister. There is no mental illness, and there is no cure. You can't change who and what he is, but he is changing _you_."

Penelope suddenly started to chuckle. "You know what I think? I think you're blaming Michael for your failures as a doctor."

Loomis furrowed his brow in confusion. "What?"

"You can't find any other explanation for his strange behavior, so you claim it's because he's the Devil. And you resent me because he favors me over you."

"That's nonsense, Sister-"

"And stop calling me 'Sister'!" she was now yelling. "I'm not a nun anymore, dammit!"

All of the patients and nurses in the hallway turned their heads to stare at the doctor and former nun.

The stunned Loomis could only stare at her as she turned around and headed back to Michael's room.

Michael was still in his chair when she returned, staring blankly ahead through the window. She approached him and gently stroked his brown hair.

"Michael," she spoke softly to him, "I promise, even if you stay here for the rest of your life, I'll be with you always."

...

 ** _Six weeks later..._**

Penelope almost didn't make it to the toilet in time and barely missed the seat as she puked. After she was done emptying her stomach of all its contents, she washed her mouth and sat on the floor, breathing heavily and shakily.

For the past three days she had been feeling nauseous and had to vomit six times. It had gotten so severe that she had to stay home, which meant that Michael had to be cared for by the nurses back at Smith's Grove.

She decided to go see a doctor the next morning and get this taken care of as quickly as possible. After all, she had to get back to Michael.

* * *

 ** _Craighead, Illinois_**

 ** _October 31, 2018_**

"Trick or treat!"

A group of kids ran to Gabe and Sally's van, the back of which had been decorated to look like a circus tent. Red and white striped drapes were used to form the tent and a cardboard cutout of a friendly clown greeted the trick-or-treaters. Gabe and Sally sat in metal chairs as they passed out candy as well as free balloons to the kids.

The adult accompanying the trick-or-treaters looked familiar to Gabe, and soon he would find out why. The man saw Gabe and his brows raised in surprise. "Gabe? Gabe Wilson?"

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Gabe asked him.

The man laughed. "I'm Tim Sanders! You know, from Rayfield!"

Rayfield was the name of Gabe's school, and he remembered the student Tim Sanders who used to bully him because of his mother's relationship to Michael Myers. Of course, that was years ago and they were only kids, so it was water under the bridge now. "Tim? Wow, it...it's been years! How have you been?"

"Oh, great! Just taking my kid out trick-or-treating with his friends." Sanders turned to a small boy in a lion costume. "Hey, John, say hi Mr. Wilson."

The boy stepped forward and smiled shyly at Gabe. "Hi."

Gabe smiled back. "Hey, John. You having a good Halloween?"

John nodded, then he asked, "Are you really Michael Myers's brother?"

The smile on Gabe's face instantly dropped. "What?"

Sanders laughed nervously and ruffled his kid's hair. "Sorry about that, Gabe. You know kids. They'll believe any rumor they hear. Anyway, we better get going. Happy Halloween, Gabe!" He and the group of kids hurried down the street to the next house.

Gabe watched him leave in disgust. Some things never change. He felt a hand gently touch his knee and turned to his wife, who was looking at him sympathetically.

"Honey, I'm so sorry," Sally softly told him.

He grinned at her and placed his hand over hers on his knee. "It's ok. I'm actually used to it." The grin dropped, though, when he saw a patrol car drive down the street with its lights flashing. It parked right in front of their van and Officer Walker and his partner Miller stepped out.

"What now?" Gabe mumbled.

Walker greeted the couple with a nod. "Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, I'm Officer Walker and this is Officer Miller."

"Is everything alright, officers?" Sally asked worriedly.

"Well, we hate to interrupt your Halloween, but there's been a double murder at the St. Sebastian's Retirement Center," Miller informed them.

Sally clamped a hand over her mouth in horror as she gasped.

Gabe's eyes went wide and he stood up from his chair in alarm, frantically asking them questions. "Murder?! Who was murdered?! Is my mother-?!"

"Your mother is fine, Mr. Wilson," Walker calmly assured him. "But we need to ask you a few questions."

"R-Right," Gabe stammered and pointed to his house. "Come-Come inside." He then turned to his wife. "Call Nate. He's coming home _now_."

...

"Trick-or-treat!" Nate and Lance laughed in creepy voices as a woman and her young daughter answered the door.

The little girl squealed in horror at the sight of the scary clown with the machete and hid behind her mother.

"Oh, sweetie, it's okay," the mother told her.

Nate immediately felt bad and lifted his mask to reveal his real face to the girl. "Yeah, look. See? I'm a normal kid, just like you."

The girl slowky peeked her head out from behind her mother and looked at him. Seeing his normal face and friendly smile put her at ease and the corners of her mouth slowly lifted into a shy grin.

"See?" the mother giggled. "He's a nice clown."

After Nate and Lance received their last candy for the night, the latter decided to head on back home. But Nate had other plans.

Although his parents told him to go straight home, he decided to pay his grandma a suprise visit at the hospital and share his candy with her. After all, it was only ten minutes away and he figured he'd call his folks once he was there so that they wouldn't worry.

But what he hadn't realized was that he had forgotten his phone back at the house.

...

 _ **Craighead Baptist Hospital**_

A woman with long black hair walked out of the hospital through the front entrance and toward her car in the parking lot. She regretted having parked so far from the building and so late in the day. When she finally reached her blue Chevy Malibu, a rusted grey pickup suddenly pulled into the lot and parked right next to her.

The driver stepped out of the truck, and the woman gasped at the ugly burn marks on his extremely pale face and how badly burnt his exposed skin was under the holes of his jumpsuit.

"Oh, my god!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?!"

The stranger slowly turned his head and silently stared at her with his black hollow eyes.

The woman instantly sensed danger and grabbed her keys, frantically pushing the unlock button. But just as she was about to open the door and jump in, a strong hand grabbed the back of her neck, nearly crushing her bones. She managed to let out a strangled cry right before her head was smashed right through the windshield. For a few seconds, she was still alive, but then her attacker smashed her head into the dashboard with so much force that it split her skull in half.

He let go of the now limp body and turned his attention back to the hospital. He could sense her presence in that building. He knew she was inside, and he was coming for her.

And nothing would tear them apart ever again.

* * *

 _ **1978**_

"I'm...what?" Penelope's voice trembled as she stared at the doctor with wide eyes, which quickly filled with tears.

The head of the clinic, Dr. Fields, nodded as he looked down at his clipboard. "Yes, Miss Penny, you are with child. Your vomiting episodes are a result of morning sickness. You are officially four weeks pregnant."

She blinked a couple of times before she started to chuckle and shake her head in denial. "No...I can't be pregnant. That's impossible."

She knew deep down that it wasn't impossible. She and Carter did engage in sexual intercourse about a month ago. But she didn't want to believe it to be true, because if it was, then Michael...

Dr. Fields nodded his head again. "I'm afraid so, ma'am. All the results point-"

"F*CK YOUR RESULTS!" Penelope suddenly became hysterical and slapped the clipboard out of the doctor's hands, screaming in his face. "I'M NOT PREGNANT! I CAN'T BE PREGNANT!"

Dr. Fields firmly grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to calm her down. "Ma'am, please be..."

"NO!" She shoved the doctor away and ran out of the clinic. She ignored the puzzled looks of everyone in town as she sprinted past them and eventually stopped to rest on a bench, cradling her head in her hands as she sobbed in despair.

Everything was ruined.


	14. Chapter 14

**NOTE** : **There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later**

 ** _Craighead, Illinois_**

 ** _October 31, 2018_**

"Come on, Mom," Gabe mumbled as he waited for his mother to answer his phone. "Answer, _please_."

He sat in the living room with the Officer Walker and Officer Miller while his wife tried to call their son upstairs. What he didn't know was that the nurses had sedated Penelope after her episode with Dr. Sartain and her phone on the nightstand only continued to ring as she slept soundly in her bed.

After it went to voicemail for the third time, Gabe slammed his phone down on the coffee table. "Dammit!"

Officer Walker stepped forward. "Mr. Wilson," he said calmly, "we've already sent two officers down to the hospital. They'll make sure that your mother is safe."

Gabe snapped his head toward them. "Only two officers? That's not enough! You need to send the f*cking SWAT team after this guy!"

"Sir, calm down-"

"No, I'm not going to calm down!" Gabe yelled as he stood up from the couch. "My son is out there and this maniac is wandering around killing people left and right! Now I am telling you, somebody needs to kill Michael Myers _now_ and make sure that he _stays_ dead!"

"Sir, we'll take care of it," Mills tried to assure him. "Everything's going to be okay."

Gabe scoffed and shook his head. "You cops always say that," he muttered.

At that moment, Sally came running down the stairs and into the living room, a look of fear on her face and tears in her eyes. "Gabe!"

"Sal, did you get ahold of him?" her husband immediately asked her.

She shook her head as she held up their son's phone. "He forgot to take his phone."

Upon hearing those words, Gabe instantly went into panic mode and ran to the coat. "That's it. I'm gonna look for him."

...

 ** _Craighead Baptist Hospital_**

 _Wake up, Sister. Wake up._

A very quiet voice whispered in Penelope's ear, guiding her out of her deep sleep and back to the world. When she opened her eyes, a small boy was standing next to her bed. Her vision was blurry and it was dark, so she didn't recognize him.

"Nathan?"

The boy slowly walked to the end of the bed and into the light of the window. He was a blonde boy who looked to be about six years old, and he was wearing some kind of clown costume. As she studied his facial features, she suddenly remembered the same blonde boy she met at Smith's Grove fifty-five years ago.

It couldn't be. Was this a dream or another hallucination?

"Michael...?" she gasped.

The apparition turned his head toward the door. "He's here," he said softly. "He's coming for you."

"Who-Who is?"

He looked back at her. "The Boogeyman."

Penelope felt heart go to her throat and sweat began to form on her forehead. She immediately knew whom he was referring to. "He...He's here?"

The boy looked at her impassively. "Nobody can stop him. He will find you, and he will take you home."

"Home?"

"Where it all began."

Before she could ask him any more questions, he turned and walked toward the door. "M-Michael, wait!" she raspily shouted as she sat up. The boy stopped and looked back at her. "Stay here with me," she begged. "I can protect you from him."

There was what appeared to be sadness in the boy's blue eyes as he shook his head. "You can't save me, Sister." And with that, he walked out of the room and down the hall, disappearing out of her sight.

"Michael!" Without thinking, she pulled the IV needle out of her hand and got out of bed. She grabbed her coat off the chair and put it on as she hurried out of the room. She looked both ways down the hallway, but the young Michael was nowhere in sight.

A small voice in the back of her mind told her to get out of the hospital immediately, and so she walked quickly to the nearest elevator and pressed the down button. Within less than ten seconds, the door opened and she stepped in.

There was no one else inside and she pushed the lobby button. The elevator descended a few floors before it came to an abrupt stop, causing her to stumble and nearly fall. The lights dimmed and the temperature suddenly started to drop. And theb she felt an ominous presence next to her. With her heart pounding and her breaths coming out in thick fogs, she slowly turned to her head. And what she saw made her back up against the wall in fear.

It was another apparition of Michael as a young adult and wearing the still fairly new white Halloween mask and blue overalls. He silently stared at her with his black hollow eyes for a brief moment before he turned to the panel and pushed the third floor button. And as soon as he did, he disappeared in the blink of an eye and the elevator resumed its descent.

Penelope began to sob and felt sick to her stomach. Was she going insane?

...

"Hello?"

When Nate, still in his clown costume, arrived at the front entrance, there was no receptionist at the desk to greet him, which was very odd. But he shrugged it off and went straight to the elevator. Unbeknownst to the young trick-or-treater, the receptionist was lying on the floor behind the counter, her neck twisted in an unnatural way.

He stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the fifth floor where his grandma was. He lazily swung his pumpkin trick-or-treat bucket as he waited, and then to his annoyance, the elevator stopped on the third floor. The door slid open and he expected a nurse or another visitor at the hospital.

But instead, what he saw before him was a man with a white mask and in blue overalls kneeling over a dead officer and repeatedly stabbing him in the back with a kitchen knife. Fresh blood had been smeared all over the floor and even the walls.

Nate let out a loud gasp, which caught the killer's attention and he stopped stabbing to look up at him. The boy immediately recognized him as the infamous Halloween babysitter killer, Michael Myers.

Michael stared at him curiously, even titling his head to the side, before he stood up and walked toward the elevator with the bloody knife still in his hand.

Nate frantically pushed the "close door" button, but Michael had put his foot in before the door could close and stepped in, raising his knife for the kill. The hyperventilating boy backed into the wall and ducked just as Michael swung his weapon at him. He ran out of the elevator and started down the hall, but then he tripped over another policeman's body and fell right into a puddle of blood. When he lifted himself up, his chin and the entire front of his costume was covered in red fluids and he looked down at himself in horror.

Just then a strong hand grabbed his right ankle and began to pull him toward the elevator. Nate screamed as he desperately grabbed onto the dead officer, but Michael was far stronger than he was. "HELP! HELP!"

At that moment, the other elevator opened up and Penelope stepped out when she heard her grandson screaming. "Nathan?!" She looked to her right and gasped when she saw a large man attacking Nate. "Nathan!"

Michael froze at the sound of his former caretaker's voice and slowly turned around, revealing his face to her. Penelope gasped at the sight of his charred mask and overalls and his left hand which was missing two fingers. He stared at the elderly woman with his dark, hollow eyes, breathing heavily behind his aged mask and holding a knife that was dripping blood.

For the first time ever, the nun saw her patient for what he really was: a monster.

It took the sound of Nate's crying to snap her out of her shock and she shouted, "Leave him alone, Michael! It's me you want, isn't it?!" She started to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. "Come and get me, Michael! Come on!"

Michael paused before he let go of Nate's ankle and walked after her.

"Nathan, run!" Penelope shouted over her shoulder.

But the petrified Nate just sat there and watched as the masked killer chased his grandma, who reached the emergency exit stairway.

At her age, it wasn't easy to go down a flight of stairs, and she stumbled more than once, but thankfully Michael wasn't going very fast at all. Was he deliberately slowing down the pace just to toy with her and get her adrenaline going?

She managed to get to the second floor and pushed the door open. A blonde nurse was standing in the hallway and was surprised to see an elderly patient running toward her and panicking. "Miss, wh-what's wrong?" she asked the frantic woman.

Penelope stumbled into the nurse's arms and sobbed, "Oh, Lord, please help me! He's coming! He's already killed so many...!"

The nurse tried to calm her down. "Shh, it's okay," she said soothingly. "It's gonna be-"

The exit door suddenly slammed open and actually detached itself from its hinges. Both the nurse and Penelope screamed as Michael slowly walked toward them with the bloody knife.

"Come on, this way!" the nurse practically dragged Penelope to the nearest elevator and slammed on the down button. Within seconds the door opened and two ran inside. The nurse pushed the "close door" button and it started to close, but, as luck would have it, Michael managed to wedge it open with his bloody knife and stepped into the elevator.

The nurse screamed and sobbed as she cowered in one corner while Penelope backed into the other. Michael focused his attention on the poor nurse and grabbed her by the neck, then he proceeded to bang her head against the steel wall over and over again. For a moment, Penelope could only watch on in horror, then she realized that this was the perfect to make her escape.

She hated to leave the nurse to her fate, but it was apparent that there was nothing she could do for him, so she slowly reached her hand toward the panel and pushed the "open door" button. The door slid open and she snuck out of the elevator as Michael continued to brutally attack the nurse. As the door started to close again, he stopped and looked directly at her in surprise.

She released a sigh of relief when the door finally closed and the elevator started to go down, then she remembered that her grandson was still in the building. As she wobbled her way to the second elevator to look for him, it suddenly opened and a young nun stepped out and looked her way.

Penelope gasped and placed a hand over her opened mouth when she realized that she was looking at herself over fifty years ago, only her face was deathly pale and her eyes were dark and cold.

The corner's of the nun's mouth lifted into a sinister grin. "Come now, Penelope," she whispered in a chilling voice, "we mustn't keep Michael waiting."

Gasping in horror, Penelope ran to the exit stairway once again, but she tripped on the third step and came tumbling down. Her head hit the wall as she fell and she was knocked out cold. She lay unconscious on the landing, blood running down her face from the head wound.

Meanwhile in the hallway, the nun simply chuckled at the woman's foolish attempt to run away, and then the first elevator dinged as the door opened and Michael stepped out. The nun turned to him and pointed to the emergency exit. "She's in there, Michael. It's time to take her home."

Michael silently went down the stairway and found Penelope on the landing. He gently picked her up, carrying her limp body in his strong arms as he continued down the steps.

...

By the time Gabe and Sally arrived at the hospital, four patrol cars were parked at the front entrance and bodies in bags were being wheeled out of the building.

"Oh, god!" Sally cried as they both ran inside. "I hope he isn't hurt!"

To their tremendous relief, their son was sitting on a chair in the lobby, being attended to by a nurse. Sally reached him first and grabbed the boy in a tight hug. "Oh, my god, Nate!" she sobbed and held his head close to her neck. "Oh, god! My baby!"

Nate said nothing even as his mother smothered him with kisses, traumatized and frozen with fear.

Gabe joined in on the hug and kissed his son on the forehead. As he pulled away, he noticed all the blood on Nate's costume and his eyes went big. "Nate, what happened?" he urgently asked the boy. "Are you hurt?"

"The blood's not his," the nurse told him, visibly shaken from the whole ordeal. "He found two dead officers on the third floor."

"Oh, baby," Sally stroked her son's cheeks, worried by his silence.

"Where's my mother?" Gabe immediately asked the nurse. "Where's Penelope Wilson?"

"I..." the nurse shook her head, "I don't know. She wasn't in her room when we looked."

Two officers approached the family, both of them having grim expressions on their faces. "Mr. Wilson..." one of them started to say.

"Did you find her?!" Gabe yelled.

"Mr. Wilson," the other officer calmly said, "we've just replayed the surveillance videos and one of them shows your mother being carried out of the hospital by the perpetrator."

Gabe felt his heart skip a beat upon hearing those news. "Well, did you get a good look at his face?"

The first officer sighed and rubbed the bald spot on his head. "Well, the bastard was wearing some kind of Halloween mask, so no, we didn't."

Gabe's face became pale with dread. "Halloween mask...?"

Could it be...?

"Dad?" Nate's raspy, quiet voice caught everyone's attention.

"Yeah, buddy?" Gabe gently grabbed the sides of Nate's face and looked him straight in the eye. "What is it?"

Tears filled Nate's already puffy red eyes and he bit his lower trembling lip. "Dad...I saw him."

"Who?"

"The Boogeyman."

Gabe furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but they quickly went up as he realized what his son was talking about. "Nate...are you _sure_ it was him?" his voice cracked slightly as he tried his best not to have a nervous breakdown in front of his son and everyone else in the lobby.

Nate nodded, tears now rolling down his cheeks. "The Boogeyman took her, Daddy."

 **I know it's starting to get weird with all the hallucinations but bear with me, ok guys?**


	15. Chapter 15

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 **Warning: Disturbing content in this chapter**

 **ALSO: Do NOT attempt self-induced abortion. It is extremely dangerous and could even kill you**

 _ **1978**_

Penelope closed the closet doors behind her and sat down in a corner, crying and hugging her knees.

Four weeks ago, she found out that she was carrying Carter's child, but she hadn't told her neighbor yet. It would be best if he didn't know because what she was about to do would undoubtedly break his heart. But she wasn't ready to start a family, and she already had Michael to worry about. She wouldn't be able to care for both of them.

She took a deep shaky breath before she reached up and grabbed a coat hanger. Her hands were trembling as it straightened it out and she was beginning to have second thoughts about this. After all, the baby shouldn't have to pay for the mother's mistakes.

No, it needed to be done. For Michael's sake.

 _Do it for Michael_ , was her mantra as she opened up her legs and...

 _Oh, God, please forgive me._

...

"Penny?"

Carter knocked on her door and called for her for the fifth time, and once again there was no response. He knew that she was home since he heard her walking into her apartment about an hour ago but never heard her come out. His gut instinct told him that something was horribly wrong and he needed to go check on her.

Seeing that she wasn't going to answer, he turned the knob, and to his relief, it wasn't locked. He slowly opened the door and poked his head in. "Penny? You home?"

The small T.V. in her living room was on, and she always turned it off before she left. He checked the bathroom, but she wasn't there. Then he checked her bedroom, and he could hear a muffled sobbing coming from the closet.

Was she hurt?

"Penny?!" He quickly opened the closet and she was lying in fetal position, the carpet around her soaked in blood. In her hand was a bloody unraveled hanger.

"Oh, god...!" he gasped.

She barely lifted her face to him, her cheeks red from crying and strands of her hair stuck to her wet skin. "Carter," she whispered, her voice filled with so much pain, "I'm so sorry."

...

In the town's medical center, Loomis rushed down the halls until he reached Penelope's room. Carter sat just outside her door in a small chair, his head bowed and buried in his hands.

Loomis slowly approached him and gently touched his shoulder. "I came as soon as I heard," he said softly. "I'm so sorry, son."

He lifted his head and looked up at the psychiatrist with red puffy eyes. "Why... _How_ could she do this to me?" he croaked.

Loomis somberly shook his head. "I don't know."

Just then the doctor came out of the room, wiping his hands with a cloth. "You're the baby's father, right?" he asked Carter.

Carter nodded numbly and stood up. "How is she, doctor?"

"Well," the doctor sighed deeply, "there is severe internal damage, mainly in the cervix, and she has lost a lot of blood, but she should be able to recover within a few months time."

"What about the baby?"

"The fetus is undamaged. But if she still wants to abort it, we can perform-"

"Wait, wait, just...let me talk to her first. It's my kid, too."

The doctor scratched his chin as he glanced at the door. "Well...alright. But try not to upset her too much. I have concerns about her mental health."

Carter nodded and slowly walked into Penelope's room with Loomis following after him. Penelope was lying in bed, staring blankly at the window, and she didn't even look Carter's way as he approached her.

"Penny?" He sat down in the chair next to her bed and gently touched her hand. "Why didn't you tell me?" he begged. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Loomis stood in another corner and silently watched on, feeling so much pity for his old friend.

Penelope closed her eyes, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "I didn't want to be pregnant," she whispered.

Carter squeezed her hand in comfort. "Penny, I know you're scared, and this is a big change for both of us, but we'll get through it together. We'll-We'll get married. And I have enough money saved for a small house-"

"That's not what I'm worried about," she suddenly said.

Carter blinked in confusion. "Wh-What?"

Loomis closed his eyes and sighed softly. "You're worried about Michael," he said to her.

Penelope nodded, still facing the window.

Carter chuckled in disbelief and disgust. "Michael? Really? Penny, when are you going to realize that Michael is not your baby?" He took her hand and placed it on her stomach. " _This_ is your baby. _Our_ baby. Your own flesh and blood. And-And you were gonna kill it for that psychopath?"

She finally turned her head toward him, more tears coming down. "I love Michael," she croaked. "He _is_ my baby. And I'm all he has left in the world. I can't abandon him. I can't, Carter."

Carter's eyes softened. "Penny, listen. You tried, okay? You tried for fifteen years. But it's just not working out. Michael can't be helped."

Penelope shook her head, crying harder. "Carter-"

"You still believe in God, right? Well, maybe this is His way of telling you that it's time to move on."

She was left speechless and stared at her neighbor then up at Loomis, who nodded in agreement.

"You have a new family, Sister," the psychiatrist told her. "Michael can't be a part of it. You know that. As much as it hurts you to do it, you have to let him go."

Penelope felt torn. She knew that both Carter and Loomis were right. Her obsession with Michael almost caused her to kill her own unborn child. The blood of an innocent would've been on her hands. But the thought of leaving Michael alone hurt her heart, and she wasn't sure if she could ever bring herself to say goodbye to him.

She was now sobbing uncontrollably and faced the window again. She felt Carter soothingly rub her back and hear him whisper words of comfort to her until she fell asleep.

...

After a long talk with Carter and Loomis, Penelope decided to continue working at Smith's Grove until Michael's birthday, which was October 19. As the pregnancy advanced, it was getting harder for her to perform her caregiver duties and she would need assistance from the nurses. Seeing their fear of Michael made her more reluctant to leave him.

As her belly grew bigger, Michael became fascinated with the baby, which had been revealed to be a boy, and she would occasionally find him staring at her womb. When she was seven months pregnant, she decided to let him feel the baby kicking inside her, anxious to see what his reaction would be.

One morning, as they sat at the table together, she could feel her baby moving and took Michael's hand, placing it on her enlarged belly. "Feel that, Michael?" she said as she smiled at him. "The baby's kicking."

But as soon as Michael touched her, the baby began to move quicker than he ever had before, as if something was scaring him. She could actually feel the infant's fear and her protective maternal instincts kicked in. Before she even realized what she was doing, she slapped Michael's hand away and ran out of the room.

A few minutes later, after recollecting herself, she walked back into the room and sat down at the table. "I'm sorry, Michael. I...I don't know what's come over me."

...

October 19, 1978 was the saddest day in Penelope Wilson's life.

It was Michael's birthday today, but there was no music playing, no smiles on anyone's faces, not even a cake to celebrate the occasion. Just a sad little cupcake that sat untouched on the table between Penelope and Michael.

She even couldn't bring herself to look at him the entire day and would stare at the wall or down at her feet. When the evening came, she knew that it was time for her to say goodbye, and she drew in a shaky breath as she finally looked up Michael, who was drawing on his sketch pad.

"Michael?" she said softly. "I have something to tell you. This...will be my last day here."

His hand immediately stopped moving.

She swallowed as the tears started to form in her eyes. "I can't be your caregiver anymore. I can't take care of both you and the baby. It's just not possible."

He remained as still as a statue for a moment before he turned his attention to the pencil sharpener and inserted his pencil into the small hole.

She was both confused and disturbed by his lack of response, but she continued on as he slowly turned the crank. "But-But this won't be the last time we'll be seeing each other again. I'll-I'll still come to visit on your birthday and on holidays. This doesn't mean I don't love you anymore. Believe me, Michael, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. If I could somehow find a way to..."

He stopped sharpening his pencil and laid it down on the table, then he looked up at her with a blank expression, but his eyes seemed to be...predatory. And she quickly realized that he was focusing on her pregnant belly, on her unborn child.

She was startled by a soft knock on the door, and it creaked open as Carter poked his head in. "Penny," he spoke softly to her, "I'm sorry but..."

She somberly nodded. "I know." With a heavy heart, she stood up from her seat and walked over to Michael. "I love you, Michael," she whispered tearfully as she kissed him on the forehead. "I'm so sorry."

Then suddenly she felt this extreme pain in her stomach and screamed as she fell backward to the floor.

Michael had just stabbed her in the belly with the pencil.

"Penny?!" As soon as he heard her scream, Carter slammed the door open and ran into the room. "OH, MY GOD!" he yelled as he held her in his arms. "HELP! _HELP!_ "

Within seconds, two male nurses came running in and pinned Michael to the floor. One of them had a syringe in his hand and he quickly inserted the needle into Michael's arm.

Loomis came in and assisted Carter in picking up the wounded and sobbing Penelope and carrying her down the hall. "Call an ambulance!" he yelled to the other nurses. "Call an ambulance _now_!"

Even as he was being held down and losing consciousness, Michael kept his eyes on Penelope and watched as they carried her away.

Over a week later, he would escape from Smith's Grove and take the lives of four people.

* * *

 ** _Haddonfield, Illinois_**

 ** _October 31, 2018_**

"...nggh...Michael...?"

Penelope woke up to an excruciating headache and found herself in a cold, dark room with a dusty window providing the only light. When she looked down at herself, she realized that she was lying in a dusty old coffin and that her hands and feet were tied together with wire. Yellow roses were scattered all over her body.

"Wha...?" she rasped.

Just then she heard heavy footsteps slowly coming toward her and she froze in fear, her heart pounding so hard against her chest, she felt it would actually break out. "M-Michael?" she whimpered. "Is that you?"

All she could hear was heavy, labored breathing.

"Michael, please," she started to sob.

A figure now stood over her coffin and the light from the window revealed Michael's pale and charred mask. He stared down at her with his black hollow eyes for the longest time before he reached down to run his fingers through her hair.

She flinched at his touch and her whole body trembled. What was he planning to do with her?

Then to her horror, he slowly raised his other hand, which was holding a kitchen knife.

Was he going to kill her?

"No, no, wait," she begged. "Michael, don't."

He raised it higher.

"Michael!"

The moonlight reflected off the blade.

"MICHAEL, NO!"


	16. Chapter 16

**Here's the last chapter! Thank you so much for reading this fanfic!**

 **(I'm sorry if the abortion scene made you sick or angry.)**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 ** _Craighead, Illinois_**

"Debbie, I can't thank you enough for this," Sally snatched her keys from the kitchen counter.

Debbie Blankenship was their next-door neighbor, a middle-aged woman with short dark hair who was a generous and kind soul. Sally had just asked her to watch over her son in their home while she drove to Haddonfield, where her husband and mother-in-law was.

Nate sat on the couch with Debbie, still wearing his now bloodied clown costume and still very much shaken from the hospital experience.

Debbie stroked his hair in comfort. "It's no problem, Sally. I just hope Miss Penny is okay."

"Me, too," Sally sighed as she walked to couch and knelt in front of her son. "Sweetie, you'll be safe here with Debbie," she softly said. "It'll be okay."

"Mom?" Nate whispered, his eyes becoming watery again. "Is Grandma gonna die?"

She paused before she shook her head. "No, honey. She'll be fine."

"Promise?"

Another pause. "Stay in the house no matter what, okay? I love you." She kissed him on the forehead before she hurried out of the house and to her car. As she pulled down the driveway, she prayed that her husband wouldn't do anything rash.

* * *

 ** _Haddonfield, Illinois_**

"MICHAEL, NO!" Penelope squeezed her eyes and waited for the blade to come.

Just as Michael was about to bring the knife down, he froze at the sound of police sirens outside. He walked over to the window and looked out through the dusty glass.

Four police cars pulled up to the old Myers house, which had never been sold since 1963 but was now a tourist attraction because of its history with the Halloween babysitter killer. It was still empty, of course, and no one dared to go inside due to the widespread rumor of it being haunted.

Gabe couldn't explain how, but he just knew that Michael would be here, and as he stepped out of a patrol car and looked up at the small house, he saw a silhouette standing in front of the right window on the second floor. "There!" he shouted as he pointed in that direction.

As the police surrounded the house, Gabe ran to the front porch despite their warnings and went inside. A sniper climbed to the roof of the house across the street and took position, using night vision goggles to help him spot the target.

"Mom?!" Gabe shouted as he ran inside.

From upstairs, Penelope heard her son's call and opened her mouth to respond, but Michael quickly gagged her with a dusty cloth, so all that came out were muffled screams.

Fearful but determined to find her, Gabe slowly and carefully went up the old creaky stairs. One of the steps actually broke under his foot and he almost fell down, but he quickly grabbed onto the railing and pulled himself up onto the next step.

When he finally reached the second floor, he went into the room where he saw Michael earlier, but the killer was nowhere in sight. He found his mother in the coffin, bound and gagged, but thankfully still alive.

"Oh, god. Mom!" Gabe ran to the coffin and checked her over. She was frantically shouting behind the cloth, her eyes wide with fear and tears rolling down her face. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm getting you out of here."

As soon as he pulled the gag out of her mouth, she screamed, "LOOK OUT!"

He swiftly turned around and saw Michael standing right behind him with his knife raised. He tried to move away in time, but unfortunately Michael was much quicker and the blade sliced his arm. Gabe cried out in pain and dropped to the floor while his mother screamed in horror. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a plank that was lying on the floor nearby and whacked Michael in the head with it.

Michael stumbled back a bit from the impact, but he barely felt it, so Gabe stood back up and started to him again and again and even managed to knock the knife out of his hand. Soon Michael got frustrated and snapped the board in half with one swipe. But that didn't stop Gabe from grabbing the next available weapon, which was a fireplace poker.

With all his strength and with a loud cry, he thrust the poker deep into Michael's right side. The killer grunted, but amazingly he remained standing and shoved Gabe away, sending him flying across the room. Gabe cried out as he collided against the wall, and he was pretty sure that one of his ribs was broken.

"Stop it!" Penelope shrieked.

He groaned as he struggled to get back on his feet, then he remembered that there was a sniper across the street and moved right front of the window. "Come on, Michael," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm right here. Come and get me."

"Gabe, what are you doing?!" Penelope sobbed.

Michael pulled the poker out of his side and stomped toward him.

"That's it." Gabe waited until Michael got close enough and ducked down so that the sniper could get a clear shot of his target.

From the roof, the sniper could see Michael standing in front of the window and fired two shots, one bullet hitting him in the chest and the other in the neck.

Penelope screamed as the bullets shot through the window and hit Michael. When his body dropped to the floor, she frantically tried to raise her head. "Michael?!"

Gabe hurried over to her and undid the wires that bound her hands and feet. Despite the pain he was in, he picked her up out of the coffin and carried her in his arms. "It's okay, Mom. I'm here."

She looked down to see Michael lying lifelessly on the floor with blood pouring out of his bullet wounds. She was sure that he was dead and started to weep. "Oh, Michael...Michael!"

Gabe gently pulled her head into his neck, making her look away from the corpse. He carried her all the way down the stairs and out of the Myers house. As soon as they were outside, a few officers rushed into the house to look for Michael's body.

Gabe sat his mother down on the curb and approached one of the policemen. "Hey, can you give us a lift to the nearest hospital?" he asked him.

The officer nodded. "Of course." He helped Penelope into the back of his patrol car and Gabe sat next to her, then they drove off to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital.

Meanwhile, the officers in the Myers house searched for Michael's body upstairs, but all they found was his bloody knife lying on the floor.

...

On their way to the hospital, in the backseat, Penelope suddenly began to heave.

"Mom?" Gabe became worried and rubbed her back. "Are you okay?"

"I-I-I need-" she spoke in gasps and pointed out her window.

Gabe immediately understood and spoke to the officer, "I'm sorry, we need to pull over for a sec."

The officer pulled off to the side of the road and let Gabe and Penelope out, and the latter wobbled into a field of pumpkins, where she dropped to her knees and puked. Gabe knelt beside her, soothingly rubbing her back as she emptied her stomach of all its contents.

When she was finally finished, she looked up at her son with tears in her eyes. "Gabe," she whispered, "he's dead. He's really dead."

Gabe nodded, looking at her with eyes full of sympathy. "I know, Mom. I know."

"I couldn't save him," her shoulders trembled as she began to cry harder.

"I know. You tried. You loved him, and he knew it." He pulled her into a hug. "You did what no one else could: you were able to reach him. But you just couldn't pull him out. He was too far gone."

She clutched his shirt with one hand and stroked his cheek with the other. "I almost lost you, too. My baby boy. I'm so sorry, Gabriel. I love you so much."

"I know, Mom," he softly told her. "I'm just happy that you're alive. Everything's going to be alright."

As they talked in the field, the officer stood by his car and kept watch, but he didn't hear a figure sneak up behind him, and a strong hand was suddenly over his mouth. Before he reach for his gun, his neck was twisted and he dropped to the ground dead.

"Okay, we'd better get going," Gabe said as started to get up, but then he heard someone approaching them from behind. He turned around and...

A hand grabbed him by the throat and he gasped as he was being lifted a few inches off the ground.

Michael breathed angrily as he stared at him through his black eyeholes.

"MICHAEL!" Penelope screamed.

He ignored her and slowly walked into the field, taking Gabe with him.

"STOP!" She desperately grabbed one of Michael's legs, but he easily pulled away from her and continued walking. "MICHAEL!" Then, to her utter horror, she realized that he was heading straight for a tractor in the distance...with a three-spear bale mover.

"HELP!" She whipped her head back at the officer, who lying dead next to the road. She was on her own.

Gabe struggled to breathe as Michael continued to hold him by the neck. Then he managed to get a glimpse of what Michael was walking toward. He instantly knew what the killer was planning to do and started to kick at him.

But Michael just kept on going. Nothing was going to stop him. He was like a shark, focused only on killing its prey.

When they got closer to the tractor, Michael stopped and positioned Gabe in front of the middle spear. In what he was sure to be his final act of defiance, Gabe spat on the white mask and sneered. "You won't have her," he rasped. "She'll never be yours."

The Boogeyman said nothing and prepared to spear him.

A gunshot echoed in the pumpkin field and Michael grunted as he felt a bullet penetrate his shoulder. He slowly turned around to see who fired at him.

Penelope was standing a few feet away from him, aiming the officer's gun at him. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and her hands trembled. "Stop, Michael," she begged. "Please."

"M-Mom," Gabe gasped.

For a moment, Michael just stared at his former caregiver, feeling both confused and betrayed. She never once lay a hand on him during their time together. She was the one and only person he ever trusted. And now he was bleeding because of her.

Then the ghostly nun appeared at his side once again, whispering in his ear, "She's not your Sister anymore. We don't need her. Kill her now, Michael."

Suddenly, Penelope was a complete stranger to Michael. Just another prey.

He dropped Gabe and stomped toward Penelope menacingly, and she could feel the burning hatred in his eyes behind the mask.

"Mom!" Gabe wheezed as he lay on the grass.

"M-Michael!" She raised the gun again and started to back away. "Stop!"

But he didn't.

"Sister," a boy's voice caught her attention and she looked to her left to see six-year-old Michael looking up at her. "You know what you have to do," he calmly told her.

She knew what he was implying, but she shook her head. "No," she sobbed. "I can't. I can't...!" When she looked back up at the real Michael, he was still walking toward her with the intent to kill. "I can't!"

She couldn't kill...

...

 _"Michael?"_

 _She walked into the room and found the six-year-old boy sitting in front of the window. The nun approached him and smiled warmly as she stroked his blonde hair._

 _"How are we doing this morning?" she asked him in a sweet voice._

 _He looked up at her and gave her the cutest smile she had ever seen on a little child's face. "I'm good," he told her._

 _"Good. Guess what?"_

 _"What?"_

 _"I'm taking you home with me."_

 _His whole face lit up. "Really?" he asked her excitedly._

 _Penelope giggled and nodded. "Yep. You're getting out of this hospital."_

 _Michael squealed in delight and wrapped his arms around her neck in a tight hug. She laughed as she picked him up and carried him out of the room._

 _In the halls, the nurses clapped for the two as they passed by, congratulating them and wishing them luck. Dr. Loomis and Dr. Wynn were both waiting for them at the front entrance as they walked out._

 _Wynn smiled at Penelope and shook her hand. "Congratulations, Sister."_

 _Loomis ruffled Michael's hair. "You be a good boy, Michael."_

 _Michael nodded. "I will."_

 _The psychiatrist then looked at the nun and smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you, Sister. Take care good of him."_

 _"I will, Sam," she said softly as she shook her friend's hand. "I promise."_

 _And she held her little boy closer as she walked down the parking lot and toward their new future together._

 _..._

 _If only._

...

She screamed in agony as she fired two shots.

Michael's head snapped back and he stumbled backwards. Blood flowed down from his eyeholes like tears and he was completely blinded.

Gabe took the opportunity to grab Michael and pull him toward the tractor. With every ounce of strength left in his body, he shoved the killer against the spikes of the three-point bale mover.

Penelope watched in horror as the three spears pierced Michael's neck and both his wrists.

For a breath moment, Michael sat up and raised his head to the sky as his impaled body twitched madly, then he slowly slumped forward and bowed his head, his heavy breathing now a high-pitched wheezing. His legs went limp and lay spread out on the ground. The blood continued to run down from his eyeholes and drip onto his jumpsuit.

Devastated, Penelope dropped the gun and slowly approached her dying, crucified son. Gabe sat by and watched as she knelt down before Michael and reached up to touch his mask.

Before her fingertips could reach the rubber material of his fake face, Michael slowly lifted his head and looked straight at her, even though he was blind.

She sobbed uncontrollably as she placed her hands on his bloodied cheeks. "Michael, I'm so sorry."

Then something incredible happened.

For the first time in over fifty years since that fateful Halloween night, Michael Myers spoke.

It was just below a whisper, and you'd have to be real close to his face to hear it, but she definitely heard it.

One word.

"Sister..."

Penelope's eyes went big. "What? Michael, did you...?"

The wheezing suddenly stopped and Michael bowed his head again. There was complete silence. Even the wind seemed to have stopped.

"Michael?" she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

There was no response.

She shook him again. "Michael?"

Nothing.

"Michael...!"

When she finally realized that he truly was dead, she went into a sobbing fit and collasped to the ground, gripping the sides of her head and pulling at her hair.

Gabe crawled over to his mother and placed her head in his lap, doing his best to comfort her. "I'm so sorry, Mom," he softly said.

Suddenly Penelope's body went stiff and she clutched her chest. "G-Gabe..." she gasped.

"Mom?"

"I-I'm..."

Gabe began to panic. "What's wrong?! Another heart attack?!"

She couldn't respond to him and just continued to breathe in short gasps.

He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 9-1-1. "Hello! Yes, my-my mother's having a heart attack! We need an ambulance! We're-We're in a-a pumpkin patch-" A hand weakly grabbed his and he looked down to see his mother staring up at him with eyes full of sorrow and regret.

"Gabe," she whispered, "I'm so sorry." Then she closed her eyes and sighed deeply as she laid her head back down in his lap.

"Mom? Mom?! Mom!"

* * *

 ** _Craighead, Illinois_**

Nate stepped out the shower and wrapped himself in a towel, his bloody costume lying on the tile floor. He walked to the sink and got his tube of toothpaste and his toothbrush.

Downstairs in the living room, Debbie was sitting on the couch and watching a classic black-a-white film on the large screen T.V. She kept her phone on the coffee table in case the Wilsons were to call.

After brushing his teeth and rinsing his mouth, Nate bent down to spit in the sink. When he lifted his head and looked in the mirror, there was somebody standing right behind him.

He caught a glimpse of a pale white face with empty hollow eyes before everything went black.

...

The Shape slowly and quietly walked downstairs and looked through his eyeholes at the unsuspecting victim sitting on the couch and watching a movie, breathing heavily behind the mask. He snuck into the kitchen and pulled out a knife from one of the drawers of the cabinet.

She was so engrossed in the movie that she never heard him walk into the kitchen, look through the cabinets, and approach the couch. But when she saw his shadow on the wall before her, she quickly turned around.

But it was too late.

Before she could even scream, he stabbed her in the throat. Then in the stomach. Then in the shoulder. And finally, in the heart.

He watched as she rolled onto the floor and slowly bled to death.

...

Gabe and Sally were silent the entire trip back to their hometown.

It was almost 2:00 in the morning and Sally had sent several texts to Debbie, letting her know that they were on their way. But she never responded, and she figured that their neighbor was asleep.

She looked over at her husband, who was staring blankly through his window. His eyes were red and puffy and he looked like a complete mess. But of course he did; just a few hours ago he went through hell. She couldn't even begin to imagine the pain he was currently feeling, but she promised herself that she would do everything she could to heal his broken heart and soul, even if it took years.

She reached over and gently took his hand, rubbing her thumb over his in comfort.

He didn't look at her, but he spoke in a broken, quiet voice, "What are we going to tell Nate?"

"We'll tell him the truth," she softly told him. "That Grandma's gone to Heaven, and that he has a guardian angel looking down on him now."

"This will crush him, Sal."

"I know. But we'll heal together, as a family. Penny would've wanted us to."

...

He watched from the window as the car pulled up the driveway, then he opened the front door and walked outside, still breathing heavily behind his mask.

Gabe was the first one to step out of the vehicle as well as the first one to see the Shape. He froze and looked at him with eyes full of shock.

Sally stepped out next and when she saw the Shape, she gasped in horror and covered her mouth.

The couple just stood there and stared at him for a moment, before Gabe slowly approached him and reached for the mask.

"Nate?"

When his father pulled the clown mask off, Nate just stood there and stared blankly ahead, back in his blood-stained clown costume and holding the kitchen knife that was still wet with Debbie's blood.

And his eyes were the blackest eyes.

 **Happy Halloween**


End file.
